Earthquake Household Plan: During Shaking and the First Safety Check

An earthquake plan needs two different decisions: how to protect yourself while the building is moving, and how to check for immediate danger after it stops. Trying to inspect the home during shaking adds risk. Trying to repair a utility or declare a structure safe afterward can do the same.

The U.S. Geological Survey’s during-earthquake guidance is direct: Drop, Cover, and Hold On. If you are indoors, stay there during the shaking. A doorway is not a universal safe place, and rushing toward stairs or outside exposes you to falling glass, masonry, furniture, and other debris.

Choose a safe action for the places you actually use

Walk through the ordinary locations where household members spend time: beds, desks, kitchen, living room, work area, garage, and any shared building space. Choose a nearby action that does not require crossing the room during shaking.

Adapt the position for mobility, balance, sensory, or care needs. A person using a wheelchair or walker may need to lock wheels, remain seated, bend forward if able, and protect the head and neck rather than transfer to the floor. Confirm individualized techniques with the person’s care or mobility team and practice without creating a fall.

If the home is in a tsunami zone, strong or long shaking can require immediate movement to the locally designated safe area after shaking stops. Save the official local route now; this article cannot identify it.

Reduce what can fall before the next drill

During an ordinary maintenance window—not after an alert—look for items that could fall, slide, shatter, or block an exit:

• tall bookcases, cabinets, televisions, mirrors, artwork, and hanging fixtures;
• water heaters, fuel tanks, appliances, and equipment with rigid utility connections;
• heavy objects stored above beds, seating, desks, pet areas, or mobility equipment;
• glass containers, chemicals, tools, and breakable kitchen items;
• exit doors, hallways, stairs, and accessible routes that stored items could block.

Move heavy objects to lower storage when practical. Use anchoring and restraint products only when they match the wall, furniture, appliance, fastener, lease, and local requirements. Gas appliances, fuel tanks, water heaters, masonry, chimneys, and structural retrofits need qualified review; a generic bracket or internet diagram is not a design.

Renters should document concerns and ask management which items the resident may secure. Apartment residents should also review the small-space emergency plan for stairs, elevators, alarms, and shared exits.

After shaking: check in an order that protects people first

Expect aftershocks. Keep sturdy shoes, a light, necessary mobility aids, and a way to receive official information reachable. If shaking begins again, Drop, Cover, and Hold On.

1. Check people and immediate danger. Call 911 for fire, serious injury, entrapment, or another immediate threat. Give first aid only within your training.
2. Look and listen before moving. Watch for fire, smoke, a gas odor or hissing, sparking, damaged wiring, broken glass, falling materials, and downed lines.
3. Use a safe exit if the building appears damaged. Do not use an elevator. Move to the agreed open meeting place away from buildings and utility lines.
4. Account for the household. Use the short message and out-of-area contact in the emergency communication plan.
5. Follow local inspections and re-entry instructions. Do not enter a posted, visibly unstable, burning, or gas-affected building to retrieve belongings.

Treat damaged chimneys, leaning walls, shifted foundations, separated stairs, sagging floors or roofs, jammed doors, large new cracks, and fallen structural material as reasons to stay out and request a qualified evaluation. Appearance alone cannot prove that a home is safe.

Keep utility shutoff narrow and deliberate

Turning off every utility after every earthquake is not a safe universal rule. Controls may be damaged or inaccessible, and restoring service can require the utility or a qualified professional.

Gas or other fuel

USGS post-earthquake guidance says to shut off the main gas valve only when a leak is suspected, such as from an odor or broken pipe. If gas may be leaking:

• do not use matches, lighters, flames, switches, appliances, vehicles, or other possible ignition sources nearby;
• leave the affected area and call 911 or the gas utility from a safe location;
• use the valve only if the utility’s instructions apply to that exact service and it is safe to reach;
• do not turn gas back on yourself after it has been shut off.

Propane, heating oil, and other fuel systems have different controls and hazards. Follow the supplier and fire department rather than applying a gas-meter instruction to another system.

Electricity

Damaged wiring, sparks, burning odors, heat, or water around electrical equipment can require disconnection, but approaching the panel may be unsafe. Do not touch wet equipment, downed lines, a damaged service entrance, or anything in contact with a line. Leave and contact emergency services or the utility when the route or equipment is unsafe. A qualified electrician should assess damaged wiring before reuse.

Water

A broken supply pipe can worsen damage. Learn the correct household and street-side controls in advance, but do not enter a damaged or flooded area to reach them. Street or utility-owned valves may be restricted. Ask the water utility or a plumber what the resident may operate and how service should be checked before restoration.

Do not let a checklist become a building inspection

FEMA’s Earthquake Safety at Home guide helps residents notice hazards, but its checklists do not certify occupancy. Building officials, the fire department, utilities, insurers, landlords, structural engineers, electricians, plumbers, and other qualified professionals have different roles.

Photograph damage only from a safe location. Preserve receipts and notes for the insurer or landlord. Do not remove a posted notice, shore a structure, climb onto a damaged roof, enter a crawlspace, or move heavy debris to complete an inventory.

Make the household drill short enough to repeat

Once a season or after a change in the home:

1. Call “earthquake” and practice Drop, Cover, and Hold On for one minute.
2. Check that everyone can reach the chosen position without crossing the room.
3. Name the open meeting place and out-of-area contact.
4. Point to utility controls without operating them and repeat the written shutoff boundary.
5. Identify one falling or exit-blocking hazard to correct during normal maintenance.

Do not create real utility, ladder, lifting, or structural hazards for a drill. The useful outcome is a practiced protective action and a written decision about when the household leaves the problem to responders or qualified professionals.

Next, save the drill, falling-hazard check, utility boundary, and meeting place in My Household Plan. That is the one-page record to revisit after moving furniture, changing care needs, or receiving new local guidance.