Home Safety: Earthquake Preparedness

Home Safety: Earthquake Preparedness

It is imperative to adequately prepare for an earthquake as they strike suddenly without warning. Taking the proper precautions can be the difference between life and death. It is recommended that individuals in earthquake-prone regions possess an earthquake kit with sufficient supplies to last three days. It is also recommended to fasten down heavy furniture and shelves as well as keep dangerous, heavy objects low to the ground. These measures can both prevent injury and secure valuable property. It is important to take the threat of earthquake devastation seriously as earthquakes can occur at any time of day at any time of year. Additionally, it is estimated that 45 states and territories of the Unites States are at moderate to high risk of experiencing an earthquake. The National Earthquake Information Center estimates that 12,000 to 14,000 earthquakes happen every year which averages out to 35 per day. The following resources can help keep you safe in the event of an earthquake.

Earthquake Preparedness

• Earthquake Preparedness FAQs: common questions about preparing for an earthquake answered by the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program.
• Are You Ready?: earthquake information and important protective measures from FEMA.
• Emergency Preparedness and Response: an article in preparing for an earthquake including setting priorities, practice drills, and evacuation plans.
• Be Red Cross Ready: an earthquake safety checklist from the Red Cross.

Preparing Your Business?

• Preparing Your Business for the Unthinkable: steps to take to ensure the safety of your business, employees, and customers in the face of a natural disaster.
• Reducing Earthquake Losses Throughout the United States: an overview of the efforts of the San Francisco Bay Area’s steps to decreasing billion dollar losses to metropolitan areas due to earthquake devastation.
• Lessons Learned: a guide to what businesses learned after the February 2001 earthquake in Nisqually, Washington.
• Staying Open for Business After a Disaster: a 25 page handbook to preparing a business so that it can still operate after a natural disaster.

Preparing for Driving After Disasters?

• Tips for Riding Out Earthquakes: strategies for driving and managing traffic after a natural disaster.
• Emergency Traffic Management: a checklist for traffic managers in the wake of a natural disaster.
• Emergency Traffic Relief After a Natural Disaster: an agreement between the Military Traffic Management Command and the Federal Highway Administration on the terms of disaster relief for federally owned roads.
• Repairing and Reconstructing Disaster Damaged Roads and Bridges: a report on the role of emergency highway relief in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Shaking Maps

• ShakeMap: provides almost real-time ground maps and shaking intensity of specific areas after an earthquake.
• Southern California: a shake map of Southern California after a significant earthquake.
• Did You Feel It?: a community-made shake map of the 2001 Nisqually, WA earthquake.
• Utah Shaking Maps: a report of shaking maps and diagrams from the Salt Lake Valley of Utah.

Liquefaction Maps

• Liquefaction Maps: a report on the types of liquefaction maps and methods for determining a region’s susceptibility to liquefaction.
• Liquefaction Susceptibility Map: a map of Oregon that denotes its vulnerable areas.
• Liquefaction Reference: Information on liquefaction maps as well as opportunity maps specific to metropolitan regions.
• Evaluating Liquefaction: guidelines to analyzing liquefaction maps and regions.

Other Natural Hazards?

• Tsunami: an overview of the characteristics and devastation of tsunamis.
• Tornados: a meteorological look at the science or tornadoes as well as images.
• Wildfires: an article on the impact of climate change on the frequency of wildfires.

Hazmat Incidents and Dam Failure After Earthquakes

• Hazardous Materials: a report on the estimates a M7.8 earthquake would have on the Hazmat facilities along the southern San Andreas Fault.
• Case Report of the 1999 Turkey Earthquake: includes an overview of the Hazmat materials released in the earthquake along with an assessment of the risks.
• The Los Angeles Dam Story: an article about the 1971 near-dam failure after a M6.7 earthquake in Los Angeles, California.