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Earthquake Preparedness: Are you prepared?

© Geoff Habiger

Every year 500,000 detectable earthquakes occur around the earth. 100,000 of these earthquakes can be felt by residents living near the earthquake, and 100 earthquakes cause damage to property every year. There is definitely a lot of shaking going on around the globe. Many people in the United States live in areas that are prone to earthquakes. Alaska and California are two of the most active places in the United States for earthquakes (Alaska has a magnitude 7 to 8 earthquake every year, and a greater than magnitude 8 earthquake approximately every 13 years). Other states too are prone to earthquakes; in fact, from 1975 to 1995 only Florida, Iowa, North Dakota, and Wisconsin did not have an earthquake. (Don't worry if you didn't feel it though, most of these earthquakes were undetectable to people living in these states.)

If you live in an earthquake prone region are you prepared? Do you and your family have an emergency plan and know what to do if a damaging earthquake occurs? Is your home secured so that tall or heavy objects won't fall?

Earthquake Preparation for the Family
While we can hope that an earthquake does not happen during our lifetime, chances are that if you live in a region prone to earthquakes one will. Since there is no way to predict when an earthquake will occur, or to stop earthquakes from happening, the best way to survive an earthquake is to prepare for it in advance. There are several things you should do to before an earthquake does strike.

Create an Emergency Plan
One of the first things you should do to be prepared for an earthquake is to create an emergency plan for your family. This plan should be as detailed as you need for your family. In today's active world many families spend much of their time outside of the home, attending school and work, playing sports or other recreational activities, attending church, or just hanging with friends. Any plan you create for you family needs to include a meeting location (your home, a school, or your church) where all family members will head to after an earthquake to reunite. Even if you are single you should plan with friends and neighbors to determine a meeting place or a way to contact each other.

In our modern world we depend heavily on rapid and accurate communication, both for work and at home. E-mail, cell phones, and pages help to unite our world better than ever before. But remember that all of our modern communications depend on a fragile network that can be easily damaged during an earthquake. Cell phones may not work, and electricity outages may prevent you from using a computer or home phone. Creating an emergency plan with a meeting location will help to reduce some of the fear of not knowing what has happened to family or friends. Despite this risk of losing communication all family members should carry emergency phone numbers with them. While 911 and other emergency numbers are important, you should know whom to contact to let others know you are safe. You may consider using a relative or friend that lives out of state to be a contact person for your family to serve as a contact person for other people to learn about your safety, it is often easier to make long-distance calls during an emergency than local calls.

The copyright of the article Earthquake Preparedness: Are you prepared? in Everyday Geology is owned by Geoff Habiger. Permission to republish Earthquake Preparedness: Are you prepared? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.