A Japanese appeals court on Thursday upheld a ruling awarding millions of dollars in compensation to families of children swept out to sea by the massive 2011 tsunami, local media said.

In 2016, the Sendai district court ruled two local governments should pay a combined 1.43 billion yen ($13.7 million) to 29 plaintiffs — parents of 23 children who were killed in the disaster.

The victims, from the public Okawa Elementary School in the city of Ishinomaki, were among a total of 74 children who perished in rising waters after being told to wait for more than 40 minutes in school grounds with teachers, 10 of whom also died.

The plaintiffs argued their children would have survived if they had been evacuated in time.