What should be in an earthquake kit?

An earthquake kit should cover 7 days of self-sufficiency, not 3. Water is the single biggest line item: 1 gallon per person per day for drinking, plus roughly the same for sanitation. Add 5-7 days of non-perishable food with a manual can opener, flashlights and a NOAA weather radio, a 14-day supply of prescription medications, a first-aid kit oriented to cuts and punctures, heavy-duty work gloves and dust masks, a gas and water shutoff wrench, sturdy shoes stored next to every bed, and copies of insurance and IDs in a waterproof container. If you have pets, add pet food and carriers.

Should I stand in a doorway during an earthquake?

No. This is one of the most persistent and dangerous earthquake myths. The doorway advice dates from photos of 19th-century adobe homes where the door frame survived but the walls did not. In modern framed houses, doorways are no stronger than the surrounding structure and are often in high-traffic areas where swinging doors cause injury. The correct response is Drop, Cover, Hold On under a sturdy desk or table, or against an interior wall away from windows and heavy furniture.

Should I run outside during an earthquake?

No. The most dangerous place during shaking is outside near a building, where falling glass, bricks, and signage accounts for the majority of earthquake injuries. Stay where you are, drop, cover, and hold on until the shaking stops. Only move outside once it is safe to do so, and only to clear ground well away from buildings, trees, and power lines.

What should I do if I'm driving during an earthquake?

Pull over to the side of the road in a clear area away from overpasses, bridges, power lines, large trees, and tall buildings. Stop and set the parking brake. Stay in the vehicle with your seat belt on until the shaking stops. Do not drive over bridges or through tunnels that have been shaken until they have been inspected. After the shaking stops, drive carefully and expect debris in the road.

How do I shut off the gas after an earthquake?

Only shut off gas if you smell it, hear hissing near the meter, or see visible damage. Unnecessarily shutting off gas requires a utility technician to restore service, which can take days or weeks after a major quake. Know where your meter is and keep an adjustable wrench or dedicated shutoff tool next to it. Turn the valve perpendicular to the pipe (a quarter turn) to close. If you do smell gas, shut off the valve, evacuate the building, and call the utility from outside.

How long should an earthquake kit last compared to a hurricane kit?

At least 7 days of supplies, versus 3 days for a hurricane kit. The difference is infrastructure recovery: a hurricane disrupts power for days but utilities are generally staged to return quickly, while a major earthquake can damage water mains, roads, gas lines, and power distribution in ways that take a week or more to restore even in well-prepared regions. Pacific Northwest seismic guidance recommends 2 weeks of water for a subduction-zone scenario; if you live in that zone, plan accordingly.

Earthquake preparedness

Earthquake Preparedness Kit + Home Safety Checklist

Earthquakes give you no warning and no season to plan around, which means preparedness is almost entirely about what you did last year. This is the calm, complete earthquake preparedness checklist we built for real families: know your seismic risk by address, secure the high-risk furniture and utilities in your home, build a 7-day kit (not the 3-day kit that works for hurricanes), and know Drop, Cover, Hold On cold so you respond right during the shaking. No doom language, no prepper theater.

Know your seismic risk at your address.

Earthquake risk varies enormously over short distances. Proximity to known faults, the age and construction type of your home, and local soil conditions (liquefaction zones, landslide risk) can double or halve your effective risk over the span of a few blocks. The FEMA National Risk Index earthquake component and the USGS seismic hazard maps both publish this information, but reading them requires translating a lot of government GIS data into plain English.

BeAware pulls your address-specific seismic risk, local fault proximity, and liquefaction-zone status into one view so you know whether your home calls for basic kit-and-anchor work or a serious structural assessment.

Check seismic risk at my address

Secure your home first (kit second)

Earthquake injury data consistently shows that the majority of injuries come from flying and falling objects, not from the building itself collapsing. That means the most effective thing you can do for your family is a weekend of home-safety upgrades, done once, before any shaking. Most items on this list cost under $30 and take under an hour.

Strap your water heater to wall studs
Single most effective earthquake home-safety upgrade. A toppled water heater is a fire hazard (gas line rupture) and destroys 50 gallons of emergency drinking water. Strap kits cost under $30 at any hardware store.
Anchor heavy furniture to walls
Bookshelves, dressers, armoires, and tall cabinets should be secured to wall studs. Tip-over accidents injure children and block escape paths in a quake.
Mount TVs and heavy electronics with anti-tip straps
A flat-screen TV becomes a flying hazard in an EQ. Use manufacturer anti-tip straps or furniture-safety straps for any heavy item above waist height.
Install cabinet latches in kitchens and bathrooms
Child-safety or earthquake-rated latches keep glass, dishes, and chemicals contained during shaking. Prevents the most common injury: stepping on broken kitchenware.
Know where your main gas and water shutoffs are
Walk every household member to both valves. Store the shutoff wrench directly next to the gas meter. After any shaking strong enough to move furniture, shut off gas immediately if you smell it.
Store shoes and a flashlight next to every bed
Nighttime quakes scatter broken glass across floors. You cannot walk safely without shoes and light. This is the easiest change on this list.
Secure mirrors and heavy wall art with proper hardware
Especially above beds, couches, and cribs. Heavy frames hung on picture-hook nails become projectiles.

Build your 7-day earthquake kit

Earthquake kits are longer than hurricane kits because utility and supply-chain recovery is slower after a major quake. Plan for 7 days of self-sufficiency, with water as the single biggest line item. Tap each item to check it off; progress is saved on this device.

0 of 24 checked

Water (7 days, not 3)

Food (5-7 days, no cooking required)

Tools and utility shutoffs

Light and power

Medical and prescriptions

Communication and documents

Want the whole kit assembled in one box, sized for your household, with the right shutoff tools and the right 7-day water solution already chosen? BeEquipped curates earthquake kits where every item is matched to the longer recovery window these events require.

Shop the BePrepared earthquake kit

Drop, Cover, Hold On — and what comes next

Major earthquakes play out over seconds, but decisions made in those seconds determine outcomes for the next hours and days. Here is the full timeline from pre-event preparation through the first 72 hours.

Before any earthquake: secure and prepare
Complete the home safety checklist above. Build the 7-day kit and store it in an accessible, ground-floor location. Brief every household member on the Drop, Cover, Hold On response. Identify your two meeting points and your out-of-state contact.
During the shaking: Drop, Cover, Hold On
Drop to your hands and knees where you are. Take Cover under a sturdy desk or table, or against an interior wall away from windows, heavy furniture, and anything that can fall. Hold On to the cover and protect your head and neck until the shaking stops. Do NOT run outside, do NOT stand in a doorway, do NOT take an elevator.
Immediately after: check yourself, check others
Check yourself and others for injuries. Put on sturdy shoes before walking anywhere. Expect aftershocks, often within minutes. If you smell gas, shut off the main valve and leave the building. If a fire has started and you cannot put it out in under a minute with a fire extinguisher, leave the building.
First hour: utilities, structure, aftershocks
Shut off water at the main valve if plumbing is damaged to prevent contamination. Do not use matches or lighters until you have confirmed there is no gas leak. Inspect the structure from outside for obvious damage. Listen to the NOAA radio for aftershock warnings and tsunami alerts (coastal areas). Do not use the phone except for emergencies: lines are overwhelmed.
First 72 hours and beyond
Use stored water for drinking. Treat tap water as suspect until a boil-water advisory is lifted or explicitly cleared. Photograph damage before moving anything for insurance. Check in with the out-of-state contact; text messages are more reliable than voice calls. Expect intermittent aftershocks for days to weeks.

Special situations: car, high-rise, night, with kids

In a car on an open road

Pull over to the side of the road in a clear area, away from overpasses, bridges, power lines, large trees, and tall buildings. Stop, set the parking brake, and stay in the vehicle with your seat belt fastened until the shaking stops. After the shaking, drive carefully; expect debris, damaged bridges, and traffic signal failures.

In a high-rise or office building

Drop, Cover, Hold On under a sturdy desk. Do not use the elevator under any circumstance. Do not rush the stairs during shaking; swaying and debris make staircases temporarily hazardous. Once shaking stops, use the stairs to evacuate calmly if the building has been damaged, and meet at your designated outdoor location.

At night, in bed

Stay in bed. Pull a pillow over your head to protect it. Do not move to a doorway or try to find a desk in the dark; walking on broken glass without shoes causes more injury than staying put. This is precisely why sturdy shoes and a flashlight belong next to every bed.

With young children

Practice Drop, Cover, Hold On with kids the way you practice fire drills. Use age-appropriate language: "Turtle!" means drop low, tuck head, hold on. Know which of your children sleep with heavy mirrors or art above their beds and fix that before any event.

Earthquake early warning and wireless emergency alerts

ShakeAlert is the USGS earthquake early warning system, operating across California, Oregon, and Washington. It cannot predict earthquakes, but it can deliver a few seconds to tens of seconds of warning before strong shaking reaches you, by detecting the faster P-waves and broadcasting ahead of the slower S-waves. ShakeAlert messages ride on Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) and on apps like MyShake.

A few seconds is enough time to drop, move away from windows, or pull over. Verify WEA is enabled on every phone:

iPhone: Settings → Notifications → scroll to Government Alerts and enable every category.
Android: Settings → Notifications → Wireless Emergency Alerts and enable every category.
West Coast: additionally install the MyShake app from the USGS for the richest ShakeAlert experience.

BeAware layers seismic risk data and post-event aftershock tracking on top of WEA so you know both what to expect and what is actually happening in the minutes and hours after a quake.

Earthquake preparedness FAQ

Deep dives from our article library

Each of these articles goes deeper on a single part of earthquake preparedness than space on this page allows.

Complete Earthquake Home Safety Guide

Room-by-room walkthrough of what to secure first. The weekend project that materially reduces your household’s injury risk, done once.

How to Secure Heavy Furniture for Earthquakes

Standing furniture killed more people than collapsed walls in the Northridge earthquake. Practical anchoring methods for bookshelves, dressers, and TVs.

Earthquake Supply Kit Essentials

Earthquakes strike all 50 states, not just California. The kit specifics that separate a functional 7-day supply from a box of random gear.

10 Earthquake-Safe Spots in Your Home

Doorways are not safe (that advice is outdated). The ten actual safe spots in a typical home, with the reasoning for each.

Post-Earthquake Home Inspection Guide

When to re-enter, when not to, and how to systematically assess structural damage without becoming the next injury statistic in an aftershock.

Preparedness for every season, every risk

Earthquakes are one of many risks your address might face. BeAware monitors all of them, BeReady builds the plan, BeEquipped ships the kit, and BeAdvised puts you in a room with an expert when you want one.

See all BePrepared solutions