By my understanding of the event, a wall of mud and ash buried the city 10+ feet deep almost instantly. Fossil were found with food in their mouths. What timeline was this "simulation" built on?
The ancient Pompeii is much closer to Vesuvius than it is easy to gather from photos...
The eruption took time, when the pyroclastic flow finally came down and hit the city, the city got buried quite quickly.
However, before the pyroclastic flow came down, many people had plenty of time to escape, and many others died because of respiratory problems, or hit by debris.
Key thing to bear in mind is that, back then, very few people would have had an idea of what was happening and how dangerous it was, even less so about the fact that there was an actual need to escape and what was a safe distance...
(Consider this: there is a lot of stuff falling from the sky and low visibility because of the dust in the air, would you run outside or seek cover insider?)
I had the same reaction as you, so I googled it. According to Wikipedia[1] the eruption did indeed take two days, with shocks starting in the morning and ash starting to fall in earnest at 1 p.m., with "pyrocastic flows" beginning in the middle of the night. People were able to escape and be rescued during the afternoon.
Sigh. Was it really necessary to preface it with: "This is not a flippant comment"?
How else to explain such sudden deaths, even considering there was enough warning of impending catastrophe, and time to escape? Why else stick it out until that final blast of pyroclastic fury?
Key thing to bear in mind is that, back then, very few people would have had an idea of what was happening and how dangerous it was, even less so about the fact that there was an actual need to escape and what was a safe distance... (Consider this: there is a lot of stuff falling from the sky and low visibility because of the dust in the air, would you run outside or seek cover insider?)
Here there is a more accurate and comprehensive description of events: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/pompeii_portents...