Preparing for an earthquake comes down to three things: making your home safer before one hits, having supplies ready for the aftermath, and knowing exactly what to do during the shaking. Most earthquake injuries come from falling objects and debris, not from buildings collapsing, which means the steps you take now in your own home can make a real difference.
Secure Your Home Room by Room
The biggest threat inside your home during an earthquake is everything that isn’t bolted down. Bookcases, dressers, TVs, and water heaters can topple, slide, or launch across a room when the ground shakes. Start by strapping your water heater to wall studs with two metal straps, which prevents it from falling and potentially rupturing a gas line. Then move through each room and secure top-heavy furniture (bookshelves, filing cabinets, china hutches) to wall studs using nylon straps or L-brackets, all available at any hardware store for a few dollars each.
Smaller items need attention too. Framed pictures above beds, heavy vases on shelves, and decorative objects on mantels all become projectiles during shaking. Use putty or museum wax (found at craft stores) to hold smaller decorative items in place. Move heavy objects to lower shelves where possible. Install latches on kitchen cabinets so dishes and glasses don’t fly out.
Consider Structural Retrofitting
If your home was built before the 1980s, sits on a raised foundation, or is near a known fault line, it may need structural retrofitting. Older homes often aren’t bolted to their foundations, which means the house can slide off during strong shaking. Common retrofit methods include foundation bolting, cripple wall bracing, installing shear walls, and mudsill anchoring.
Foundation bolting alone typically costs $1,000 to $5,000. A full earthquake retrofit averages around $6,000, with most homeowners paying between $3,500 and $8,700 depending on the home’s size and foundation type. Multi-story homes, soft-story buildings (like apartments with a garage on the ground floor), and older homes with outdated construction or hidden damage tend to cost more. It’s a significant investment, but it’s the single most effective thing you can do to protect your home’s structure.
Build a Supply Kit for at Least Three Days
After a major earthquake, you may lose water, electricity, and gas for days. Roads could be blocked. Stores may be closed. The CDC recommends storing at least one gallon of water per person per day, with a minimum three-day supply. If you have the space, aim for two weeks’ worth.
Your kit should include:
- Water and food: One gallon per person per day, plus non-perishable food that doesn’t require cooking
- First aid kit
- Medications: A rotating supply of any prescriptions you take regularly, plus basics like pain relievers, anti-diarrhea medication, and antacids
- Sanitation supplies: Moist towelettes, garbage bags, plastic ties, hand sanitizer, and disinfecting wipes
- Tools: A wrench or pliers to shut off gas and water valves, a flashlight, extra batteries
- Personal items: Feminine supplies, hygiene products, copies of important documents in a waterproof bag
Keep the kit somewhere accessible, not buried in a closet behind boxes. Some people keep a second, smaller kit in their car in case they’re away from home when an earthquake strikes.
Know What to Do During Shaking
The correct response is simple: drop, cover, and hold on. Drop to your hands and knees so you don’t get knocked down. Cover your head and neck with one arm. If a sturdy table or desk is within crawling distance, get underneath it. If not, crawl to an interior wall and bend over to protect your vital organs. Hold on until the shaking stops completely.
Two common instincts are wrong. Standing in a doorway is not safer in modern buildings. That idea comes from old photos of collapsed adobe homes where the door frame was the only thing left standing, but in a house built with standard framing, doorways offer no special protection and leave you exposed to falling objects. Running outside is even more dangerous. The ground is moving, you can easily fall, and the area right outside a building is where glass, bricks, and other debris are most likely to be falling.
If you’re in bed when an earthquake hits, stay there. Roll face down and cover your head with a pillow. If you’re outside, move to an open area away from buildings, power lines, and trees.
Set Up Earthquake Alerts on Your Phone
The ShakeAlert system, operated by the USGS, can give you seconds to tens of seconds of warning before shaking reaches your location. That’s enough time to drop and take cover, move away from a window, or pull over if you’re driving.
If you’re in California, Oregon, or Washington, you have several options. Android phones have a ShakeAlert-powered alert built directly into the operating system. For iPhones, the MyShake app (developed by UC Berkeley and sponsored by California’s Office of Emergency Services) is free on the App Store. The system also sends Wireless Emergency Alerts, similar to AMBER Alerts, through FEMA’s alert system. Check your phone’s settings to make sure emergency alerts are turned on; the option is usually under Notifications or Emergency Alerts depending on your device.
Make a Family Communication Plan
Cell towers get overwhelmed after a major earthquake. Calls may not go through for hours. The most important step in your communication plan is choosing an out-of-area contact, someone who lives at least 100 miles away. This person acts as a relay point: each family member checks in with them, and they pass messages back and forth. It works because phone networks outside the affected area are still functioning normally.
Text messages are more likely to get through than voice calls during network congestion, so make texting your default. Keep messages short. You can also use the American Red Cross “Safe and Well” website to register yourself as safe and search for family members, or Facebook’s Safety Check feature. Make sure every family member knows about these tools before an earthquake happens, not after.
Pick two meeting places: one near your home (like a neighbor’s yard) and one outside your neighborhood in case you can’t get back. If your kids are in school, know the school’s earthquake and release procedures ahead of time.
Prepare for Pets
If you’re told to evacuate, your pets go with you. Pets left behind often end up lost, injured, or worse. The challenge is that many public shelters and hotels don’t allow animals, so figure out your options now. Identify pet-friendly hotels along your evacuation route, ask friends or family outside your area if they could take your animals temporarily, or contact your veterinarian about boarding facilities.
Build a buddy system with a neighbor: if you’re not home when an earthquake hits, they agree to grab your pets (and vice versa). Keep an extra supply of any pet medications in a waterproof container as part of your kit, along with food, water, a leash or carrier, and copies of vaccination records.
Know Your Utilities
After an earthquake, you may need to shut off your gas, water, or electricity. A damaged gas line is a fire and explosion risk, so learn where your gas meter is and how to turn it off with a wrench. Keep that wrench near the meter. In California, earthquake-sensitive automatic gas shutoff valves are available, which detect seismic activity and close the gas line without any action from you. These are worth considering if you live in a high-risk zone.
Only shut off your gas if you smell it, hear it hissing, or see visible damage to the line. Once you turn it off, the gas company has to come out to turn it back on, which could take days after a widespread earthquake.
Review Your Insurance
Standard homeowners’ insurance does not cover earthquake damage. It also won’t cover damage from landslides or other land movement that earthquakes can trigger. You need a separate earthquake insurance policy. The catch is that earthquake insurance deductibles tend to be high, often 10 to 20 percent of the home’s insured value. That means on a home insured for $400,000, you could be responsible for the first $40,000 to $80,000 in damage before the policy pays anything. For most earthquakes, the damage to an individual home falls below that threshold, so many insured homeowners still don’t receive a payout.
Whether earthquake insurance makes sense for you depends on your proximity to fault lines, your home’s construction, and how much financial risk you can absorb on your own. In California, the California Earthquake Authority is the main provider and offers policies with varying deductible levels.