What to do during and after an earthquake
Official guidance in the United States is short enough to remember and specific enough to act on. It is on this page because it is worth knowing before you need it, not because anything has just happened.
While the ground is shaking
Drop, cover and hold on.
- Drop to your hands and knees, which stops you being knocked over and lets you move if you need to.
- Cover your head and neck with one arm, and get under a sturdy table or desk if one is within reach. If not, move against an interior wall away from windows and anything that can fall on you.
- Hold on to your shelter until the shaking stops, and be ready to move with it.
Most injuries in US earthquakes come from falling objects and from people moving during the shaking. Staying put and protecting your head is what the guidance is optimising for.
Three things not to do
- Do not stand in a doorway. This is advice from an era of unreinforced masonry buildings, where a doorframe sometimes survived a collapse. In a modern building a doorway is no stronger than the wall and offers nothing over your head.
- Do not run outside. The area immediately outside a building is where falling glass, masonry and cladding land. If you are already outdoors, move away from buildings, trees and power lines and stay there.
- Do not use lifts. If you are in one when shaking starts, get out at the first opportunity.
Specific situations
| If you are | Do this |
|---|---|
| In bed | Stay there and protect your head with a pillow. Getting up in the dark among broken glass is the greater risk. |
| Driving | Pull over clear of overpasses, bridges and power lines, and stay in the vehicle until the shaking stops. |
| In a wheelchair | Lock the wheels, lean forward and cover your head and neck. |
| Near the coast, and the shaking is strong or long | Once it stops, move inland or to high ground immediately without waiting for an official warning. Strong local shaking is itself the tsunami warning. |
| In a high-rise | Drop, cover and hold on. Expect the building to sway considerably and for sprinklers or alarms to trigger. Do not use lifts. |
In the first minutes afterwards
- Expect aftershocks and be ready to drop, cover and hold on again. What to expect from a sequence →
- Check yourself, then the people around you for injuries.
- Put on shoes before walking anywhere. Broken glass is the most common post-earthquake injury.
- If you smell gas or hear hissing, get everyone out and shut off the gas at the meter if you know how. Only shut it off if you suspect a leak — restoring supply requires the utility, and needlessly shutting off leaves you without heat or hot water for potentially a long time.
- Do not light a match or use a lighter until you are sure there is no gas leak.
- Text rather than call. Voice networks congest first after a disaster; text messages get through on far less capacity.
In the hours afterwards
- Do not enter a visibly damaged building to retrieve anything. Aftershocks can bring down what the mainshock loosened.
- Report what you felt to USGS Did You Feel It? — those reports produce the official intensity maps used by emergency managers.
- Get official information from your local emergency management agency and from USGS. QuakeIndex reports what has been recorded; it does not issue warnings or instructions.
- Photograph any damage before you clean up, if you may make an insurance claim. How earthquake insurance works →
- Check on neighbours, particularly anyone elderly or living alone.
Before the next one
Two things reduce risk more than anything you can do in the ten seconds of shaking: securing the building if it is a pre-1980 wood-frame house, and securing the heavy objects inside it — bookcases, water heaters, wall-mounted televisions. Then a kit, and early warning on your phone.
Sources
Last checked:
- Earthquake safety — what to do before, during and after — FEMA
- Drop, Cover and Hold On — Earthquake Country Alliance
- Seven steps to earthquake safety — Earthquake Country Alliance
- Tsunami safety — natural warnings — NOAA / National Tsunami Warning Center
- Earthquake preparedness — USGS