During the shaking
Drop, cover, hold on. Get down on hands and knees before the shaking knocks you down, get under a sturdy table or desk, and hold on to it so it stays over you as the floor moves. If there is no table, crouch against an interior wall away from windows and cover your head and neck with your arms. Stay put until the shaking stops.
Do not run outside while the ground is moving. Most injuries in earthquakes come from falling objects, broken glass and losing your footing, and doorways in modern construction are not stronger than the rest of the frame. If you are in bed, stay there and put a pillow over your head; getting up in the dark onto a floor covered in broken glass is worse. If you use a wheelchair, lock the wheels and cover your head and neck. If you are outdoors, move to open ground away from buildings, glass facades and power lines. If you are driving, pull over clear of overpasses, bridges and power lines, and stay in the vehicle until it stops.
After the shaking stops
Put shoes on first. Broken glass is the most common post-earthquake injury and it is invisible in a dark hallway. Then check the people around you, and look for hazards: if you smell gas or hear hissing, get everyone out and shut off the gas at the meter only if you know how — and do not turn it back on yourself, since that requires the utility.
Expect aftershocks, including ones large enough to bring down what the main shock weakened. Do not go back into a damaged building to retrieve anything. Text rather than call, because text messages get through congested networks when voice calls do not, and phone lines should stay clear for emergencies. If the power is out for a long stretch, the battery bank sizing calculator and the generator sizing calculator will tell you what it takes to keep the essentials running — and any generator goes outdoors, well away from the house, without exception.
An afternoon of prep beats a year of intention
| Item | What to do |
|---|---|
| Bookcases, dressers, wardrobes | Strap to wall studs with anti-tip brackets. Anything taller than it is wide goes on the list |
| Water heater | Strap to the wall at top and bottom. A toppled heater breaks a gas line and a water line at once |
| Televisions and heavy shelf items | Straps or museum putty; heavy things belong on low shelves |
| Above the bed | Nothing framed, nothing heavy, nothing on a hook |
| Water and food | A few days per person at minimum, rotated; a gallon of water per person per day is the usual figure |
| Kit | Flashlights, battery radio, chargers and battery packs, first aid supplies, cash, copies of documents, medications |
| Utilities | Everyone in the house knows where the water main and the gas and electrical shutoffs are |
Two low-effort items are worth calling out: sturdy shoes and a flashlight kept where you sleep, and an out-of-area contact everyone in the family agrees to check in with, since local circuits jam long before distant ones do.
Flooding: turn around, don't drown
Never drive through standing water. This deserves the flat statement because a large share of flood deaths in the United States happen in vehicles, and they happen to ordinary, competent drivers on roads they know.
From behind a windshield you cannot judge two things that decide the outcome. You cannot judge the depth, because the surface tells you nothing about the hole underneath, and moving water routinely scours out the roadbed so that the pavement you are expecting is no longer there. And you cannot judge the current, which is what actually moves the car. Commonly cited figures give the scale: a few inches of moving water is enough to knock an adult off their feet, a foot of it can float many cars, and two feet will carry away most vehicles including trucks and SUVs. Once the car is floating it is not a car anymore, it is a boat with no steering.
| Situation | Do |
|---|---|
| Flooded roadway, any depth | Turn around and find another route. Barricades are there for a reason |
| Flooded road at night | Same answer, more emphatically — depth is unreadable in the dark |
| Water rising around a stopped car | Get out and move to higher ground on foot immediately, while the doors still open |
| Underpass or dip | Avoid entirely during heavy rain; these fill first and deepest |
| Basement filling | Do not enter standing water where wiring may be live |
| Flash flood warning | Move to higher ground now, not after the rain looks worse |
If water reaches the car
The best version of this is not being there. If it happens anyway: unbuckle, open the window and get out through it, and get everyone else out the same way. Do this immediately, while the car is still shallow and the electrics still work, because doors become impossible to push open against outside water pressure long before you would expect. A spring-loaded window punch kept within reach of the driver's seat — not in the glovebox and not in the trunk — is the tool for a window that will not go down. Once out, move perpendicular to the current toward higher ground and leave the vehicle. It is insured. Leave it.
Do not walk into moving floodwater you cannot see the bottom of, and treat any water over a road after a flood as contaminated and possibly electrified. After the water goes down, photograph everything before cleaning up, and check with your county emergency management office about damage reporting, since assistance programs are announced locally and usually have deadlines.
How the warning reaches you
Wireless Emergency Alerts arrive on your phone without an app and without a subscription for a narrow set of severe events, including flash flood and tornado warnings and evacuation orders. They are loud on purpose. Leave them enabled, and if you have turned them off after being woken up once, turn them back on. A NOAA weather radio still works when cellular does not, which is the specific case it is for.
Understand who decides. Watches and warnings come from the National Weather Service; a watch means conditions are possible, a warning means it is happening or imminent. Evacuation orders come from local government — county or city — because emergency management in the United States is a local function. That is also who posts shelter locations and reporting instructions. Find your county's emergency management page now and know its name, so that when the alert arrives you are looking something up rather than searching for what to search for. Securing an empty house before you leave is a related job, and the home security guide covers it.
Questions people ask
Should I run outside during an earthquake?
No. Most injuries come from falling objects and from being knocked down, and both are worse while you are moving through a building or standing next to one as facade material comes off. Drop to hands and knees, get under a sturdy table or desk, and hold on to it so it stays over you. If there is no furniture, crouch by an interior wall away from windows and cover your head and neck. Stay put until the shaking stops, then put shoes on before you walk anywhere, because broken glass is the usual second injury.
Is a doorway the safest place in an earthquake?
Not in modern construction. The advice dates from older adobe and unreinforced masonry buildings where the door frame was genuinely one of the stronger elements. In a contemporary house, a doorway is no stronger than the surrounding wall, it offers nothing against falling objects, and the swinging door itself can injure you. Getting under a sturdy table and holding on is better in essentially every case.
How deep does water have to be before it is dangerous to drive through?
The honest answer is that you cannot tell from inside the car, which is why the rule is simply not to drive into it. Commonly cited figures give the scale — a few inches of moving water can knock an adult over, roughly a foot can float many cars, and about two feet carries away most vehicles including trucks and SUVs — but the depth is only half the problem. Moving water routinely washes the roadbed out from under the surface, so the pavement you are counting on may not exist. Turn around and take another route.
What is the difference between a watch, a warning and an evacuation order?
A National Weather Service watch means dangerous conditions are possible and you should prepare. A warning means the event is occurring or imminent and you should act now. An evacuation order is different in kind: it comes from local government, usually the county or city, because emergency management in the US is a local function, and it tells you to leave a specific area. Watches and warnings can reach you through Wireless Emergency Alerts on your phone, but evacuation instructions and shelter locations come from your county emergency management office.