How Do You Prepare a Family for an Earthquake?

It is 4:40 on a Tuesday morning. Your ten-year-old is asleep at the end of the hall, there is a full glass of water on your nightstand, and somewhere downstairs the dog has just started making a noise you have not heard before.

Then the bed moves.

Every other emergency gives you some warning. A hurricane gives you days. A wildfire gives you at least the smell of smoke. An earthquake gives you the dog, about four seconds early, and that is it.

What your family does in the next minute, and in the hour after that, comes down entirely to things you decided on an ordinary afternoon months ago. This article is about those decisions. Not seismic science, but what a quake looks like from inside a house at 4:40 in the morning, and why the hour after the shaking stops tests your preparation harder than the shaking does.

Do I actually live somewhere with earthquake risk?

Probably, and more likely than you think.

Most people picture California or the Pacific Northwest, and those risks are real. The Cascadia Subduction Zone could produce one of the most destructive earthquakes in North American history. But the New Madrid Seismic Zone runs through Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky, and it has produced some of the largest quakes in recorded North American history. The Wasatch Front sits under Salt Lake City. Charleston, South Carolina had a major earthquake in 1886.

The pattern worth noticing: in a lot of the places where risk is meaningful, awareness is lowest, because nobody there grew up doing earthquake drills. If you are not sure about your own area, the USGS publishes a national seismic hazard map you can check in about a minute.

What should my family do in the first 60 seconds?

The shaking is rarely what injures people. What injures people is what happens during the shaking: falling objects, broken glass, toppling furniture, and instinctive responses that turn out to be wrong.

Learning the right response is the single highest-value thing a family can do about earthquakes. It costs nothing and takes about two minutes to practice.

Drop, Cover, and Hold On

• Drop to your hands and knees right away. This keeps you from being knocked down and still lets you move.
• Cover under a sturdy desk or table. If there is nothing to get under, cover your head and neck with your arms and crouch against an interior wall, away from windows.
• Hold on until the shaking stops. Do not try to change rooms or get outside while the ground is moving. Hold on means one hand gripping the table leg, because a table skitters across the floor during shaking and a table you are not holding is a table that leaves.

The four things people do wrong

• Running outside. Most injuries happen outside, from falling debris and glass coming off buildings.
• Standing in a doorway. This is outdated advice. In modern construction a doorway is no stronger than the rest of the house and it leaves you exposed.
• Moving toward windows. Glass and facade materials are the most dangerous things in the room.
• Running to find family members. Stay where you are until it stops. You cannot help anyone while you are being knocked over.

What does the first hour look like?

The shaking might last thirty seconds. The hour that follows is where families find out how prepared they actually are.

The power is probably out. There may be a gas leak. Roads may be damaged. Emergency services will be overwhelmed and cell networks jammed. Aftershocks will follow, sometimes within minutes and sometimes nearly as strong as the first one.

Time	What to do
0-5 min	Stay low until the shaking has fully stopped. Check yourself and anyone nearby for injuries before moving.
5-10 min	Check for a gas smell. If you suspect a leak, do not touch switches, phones, or anything with a flame. Open windows and get out.
10-20 min	Look for structural damage before moving through the house. Look up before you walk. Ceiling damage is common and easy to miss.
20-30 min	Get to your kit. Turn on a battery or hand-crank radio for emergency broadcasts.
30-60 min	Account for everyone. Contact your out-of-town contact. Texts get through when calls do not.
60 min+	Decide whether to stay or go, following local emergency management guidance.

Nearly every one of those steps depends on supplies being reachable in the dark, with no power. A flashlight with dead batteries is not a flashlight. A radio that needs an outlet is not a radio. A first aid kit at the back of a garage you can no longer open is not a first aid kit.

What belongs in an earthquake kit?

The foundation is the same as any 72-hour kit: water, food that needs no cooking, first aid, light, and a way to hear what is happening. Our guide to choosing a kit for your area covers that foundation in detail.

What makes it an earthquake kit is what gets added on top.

• Sturdy work gloves. You will be moving things with broken edges.
• A hard hat. Aftershocks bring down what the first quake loosened.
• Safety goggles. Drywall dust and glass fragments.
• A pry bar. Door frames rack out of square and stick.
• NIOSH-marked N95 respirators for everyone old enough to wear one, roughly age seven and up. Structural dust is fine particulate, and a cloth mask does nothing against it. Look for two straps rather than ear loops. Here is how to check whether a mask is genuine.
• A whistle for every person. If you are trapped, a whistle carries further than a voice and lasts longer.

Our ShakeGuard earthquake kits are built around that list, with the hard hat, goggles, gloves, and pry bar included rather than left for you to source.

What can only my family add?

No pre-packed kit covers the parts specific to your household. These are the ones people wish they had.

• Prescription medications. The American Red Cross recommends a seven-day supply for households generally. For older adults specifically, they recommend at least thirty days.
• Copies of IDs, insurance, and medical records in a waterproof bag.
• Cash in small bills. Card readers and ATMs go down with the power.
• A printed contact list with an out-of-town contact your family can text.
• Comfort items for young children. Something familiar does more than most parents expect.
• Pet supplies. Food, water, a carrier, vaccination records, and a leash. Our pet emergency plan covers the rest.

If someone in the household is an older adult, add spare eyeglasses, hearing aid batteries or a charger, a printed medical summary, and a backup plan for any equipment that runs on electricity. Our guide to helping an aging parent prepare goes through it properly.

What should I do to the house itself?

This is the part with nothing to do with your kit, and it may be worth more than the kit. Most earthquake injuries come from things inside buildings rather than from buildings collapsing. Bookcases going over, televisions coming off stands, objects flying off high shelves.

• Put sturdy shoes and a flashlight under every bed. This is the single most useful free thing on this page. Broken glass is the injury people actually get, and a kit in the hall closet does nothing if you cannot cross a dark bedroom to reach it.
• Strap tall furniture to wall studs. Bookshelves, dressers, and the water heater. Straps and brackets cost very little.
• Move heavy things down. Anything above head height that would hurt if it fell.
• Secure the television and any large electronics.
• Find your gas shutoff and keep the right wrench with it. Only shut it off if you actually suspect a leak, since getting it turned back on requires the utility.
• Put breakables in lower cabinets with latches.
• Decide which rooms are safest. Interior, away from windows and exterior walls.

Two hours of this work is some of the highest-value preparedness a family can do, and none of it requires buying a kit.

A question worth sitting with

If the shaking started right now, where is everyone in your household, and does each of them know what to do without being told?

That is the honest test. Not whether you own a kit, but whether the plan exists in more than one person's head.

The bottom line

Earthquake preparedness is not about predicting the next one. It is about taking the panic out of the moment it happens.

A family that has practiced Drop, Cover, and Hold On knows what to do in the first minute. A family with a kit they can reach knows what to do in the first hour. A family that has already decided who calls whom and where to meet is not making those decisions with the room still moving.

That is all it is. Not fear, not stockpiling. Just the quiet confidence of having done the work beforehand.

If your kit is the part that is not done yet, our earthquake kits arrive packed, with the hard hat, goggles, gloves, and pry bar already in the bag. Add your medications and documents once, put it somewhere you can reach in the dark, and the hardest part is behind you.

Frequently asked questions

Is standing in a doorway during an earthquake safe?
No. That advice comes from old adobe construction where the door frame was the strongest part of the house. In a modern building a doorway offers no real protection and leaves you exposed to swinging doors and falling objects. Drop, cover, and hold on instead.

Should I run outside when the shaking starts?
No. Most earthquake injuries happen outside, from falling debris, glass, and facade materials coming off buildings. Stay where you are, get low, and cover your head until the shaking stops completely.

How much water should an earthquake kit hold?
The standard is one gallon per person per day for at least 72 hours. For a family of four that is twelve gallons, which weighs about a hundred pounds, so no backpack carries it. Store water at home alongside your kit, and keep a way to treat more. We worked through the arithmetic in why your kit doesn't come with three days of water.

What is the most useful thing I can do for free?
Put sturdy shoes and a flashlight under every bed, and strap your tall furniture to the wall. Neither costs much, and both address the injuries people actually get.

Peace of mind, packed and ready.

Sources: U.S. Geological Survey, 2024 National Seismic Hazard Model and national seismic hazard maps; Ready.gov, FEMA's preparedness campaign, earthquake guidance; American Red Cross, medication supply recommendations; CDC guidance on earthquake injuries.