Preparing for an earthquake means taking a handful of practical steps now, while things are calm, so you’re not scrambling during or after shaking starts. Most of the work falls into a few categories: building a supply kit, securing your home, making a family plan, and knowing exactly how to react in those first seconds of ground motion. Here’s what to prioritize.
Stock a 72-Hour Emergency Kit
Plan for at least three days without outside help. In a serious earthquake, roads can be blocked, power grids down, and water systems compromised for days or longer. Your kit should cover the basics for every person in your household.
Water is the most critical item. Store at least one gallon per person per day, which means a minimum of three gallons per person for a 72-hour window. That covers drinking and basic hygiene. If you have pets, add water for them too.
For food, stick with shelf-stable items that don’t need cooking or refrigeration: peanut butter, dried fruit, energy bars, canned goods (with a manual can opener), and crackers. Rotate these out every six to twelve months so nothing expires before you need it. Round out the kit with a flashlight, extra batteries, a battery-powered or hand-crank radio, a whistle, and dust masks or bandanas to filter airborne debris from collapsed drywall and concrete. Include any prescription medications your household members take, enough for several days, plus a basic first aid kit.
Learn Drop, Cover, and Hold On
This is the standard protective action recommended by seismologists and emergency managers, and it works because most earthquake injuries come from falling or flying objects, not structural collapse. The moment you feel shaking or receive an alert, drop to your hands and knees. This keeps you from being knocked down. Cover your head and neck with one arm. If a sturdy table or desk is nearby, crawl under it and hold on with one hand so you can move with it if it shifts. If there’s no shelter nearby, stay low and protect your head and neck with both arms.
Practice this a few times a year so it becomes automatic. If you use a wheelchair, lock your wheels and bend forward to cover your head and neck with both hands. If you use a walker, get as low as you safely can and protect your head. If you’re in bed when shaking starts, stay there, turn face down, and cover your head with a pillow. Running to a doorway or outside during shaking is outdated advice and increases your risk of injury.
Set Up a Family Communication Plan
After a strong earthquake, local phone networks get overwhelmed fast. Calls between people in the same city may not go through, but long-distance calls often have an easier time connecting. That’s why emergency planners recommend choosing one out-of-state contact person. Each family member calls or texts that single person to check in, and that person relays everyone’s status. This limits the number of calls flooding local networks.
Text messages are more reliable than voice calls during network congestion because they require far less bandwidth. Make texting your default communication method after a quake. Write your plan down on a card that each family member carries: the out-of-state contact’s name and number, a designated meeting spot near your home, and a second meeting spot farther away in case the neighborhood is inaccessible.
Protect Your Important Documents
If you need to evacuate quickly, you won’t have time to dig through filing cabinets. Prepare a waterproof grab-and-go bag with copies of your most important papers. Include copies of driver’s licenses, passports, and any other government-issued ID. Add birth certificates, marriage licenses, Social Security cards, and immigration or military records if applicable.
Also include printed copies of your insurance policy numbers and contact information for your medical, home, life, and auto insurers. Keep a list of contact numbers for your doctor, pharmacy, veterinarian, local utilities (gas, electric, water), and both emergency and non-emergency numbers for fire and police. Store the originals in a fireproof safe or bank safe deposit box, and keep the copies in your go-bag where you can grab them in under a minute.
Know Your Gas Shutoff Valve
A ruptured gas line is one of the most dangerous secondary hazards after an earthquake. If you smell gas, hear hissing, or see damage to your gas meter after shaking stops, you need to shut the valve off immediately and leave the area.
The shutoff valve is typically located on the pipe leading into your gas meter, outside your home. Turning it requires a quarter turn with a wrench. Standard adjustable wrenches work, but dedicated gas shutoff wrenches are inexpensive and designed to fit common half-inch and three-quarter-inch valves. Keep one tied or zip-tied to the meter itself so you can find it in the dark. Important: once you shut off the gas, do not turn it back on yourself. Contact your gas company or a licensed plumber to restore service, since they need to check for leaks before relighting pilot lights.
Secure Your Home’s Interior
A huge portion of earthquake injuries happen indoors, from objects that fall, tip, or shatter. Walk through each room and look for what could move during violent shaking. Tall bookshelves and dressers should be anchored to wall studs with furniture straps or L-brackets. Water heaters need to be strapped to the wall as well, both to prevent injury and to protect your post-quake water supply (a standard 40-gallon water heater is a valuable emergency water source).
Move heavy objects off high shelves and store them lower. Use museum putty or quake-hold gel to keep fragile items from sliding off surfaces. Install latches on kitchen cabinets so dishes and glasses don’t fly out. If your bed sits beneath a heavy mirror, framed picture, or shelf, relocate those items. You spend roughly a third of your life in bed, so that’s a high-probability location to be during an earthquake.
Review Your Insurance Coverage
Standard homeowners and renters insurance policies do not cover earthquake damage. This surprises many people, but it’s the case across the United States. The only earthquake-related damage a standard homeowners policy covers is fire that follows a quake.
Separate earthquake insurance is available, but the deductibles are significantly higher than what you’re used to on other policies. In California, for example, the state earthquake authority offers deductibles ranging from 5% to 25% of your home’s insured value. For a home insured at $500,000, a 10% deductible means you’d pay the first $50,000 of repairs out of pocket. Homes valued over $1 million, or older homes built before 1980 on raised foundations that haven’t been seismically retrofitted, face a minimum 15% deductible. Whether the cost makes sense depends on your home’s value, location, and your ability to self-fund repairs. But understanding what your current policy does and does not cover is a step you can take today.
Sign Up for Earthquake Early Warnings
If you live on the U.S. West Coast, you already have access to the ShakeAlert system, which sends warnings to mobile devices in California, Oregon, and Washington. The system detects the fast-moving but less damaging initial waves from an earthquake and sends an alert before the slower, destructive waves arrive. The farther you are from the earthquake’s origin, the more warning time you get, potentially several seconds to tens of seconds.
That may not sound like much, but a few seconds is enough to drop and take cover, move away from a window, or pull over if you’re driving. On iPhones and Android devices, these alerts are delivered through the built-in Wireless Emergency Alert system or through apps like MyShake (California) and ShakeAlert (Oregon and Washington). Check your phone’s emergency alert settings to make sure they’re turned on. Outside the West Coast, no comparable public system currently exists, which makes the other preparation steps on this list even more important.
Practice and Revisit Your Plan
Preparation only works if your household actually knows the plan. Run through the basics with everyone who lives with you, including children. Show them where the emergency kit is stored, where the gas shutoff valve is, and where the family meeting spot is. Practice Drop, Cover, and Hold On at least twice a year. Many schools and workplaces participate in the Great ShakeOut drill every October, which is a convenient reminder to rehearse at home too.
Check your kit every six months. Replace expired food and medications, update your document copies if anything has changed, and swap out batteries. Refill water containers annually. Earthquakes give no advance notice beyond those few seconds of early warning, so the only window for preparation is the one you’re in right now.