Disaster Preparedness - Earthquakes

Before the Quake:

1. Discuss safety rules from whatever manuals or websites that deals with earthquakes.

2. Conduct earthquake practice drills, where you search out and stay in safe places.

3. Take any big, heavy objects and breakable objects that are on higher shelves and put them on lower shelves.

4. Secure water heaters, gas appliances, refrigerators, heavy furniture, bookcases, and shelves.

5. Secure mirrors, pictures, and hanging plants, especially those hanging over beds.

6. Keep hazardous and flammable liquids in cabinets or on low shelves.

7. Check your house for structural flaws that could cause problems in an earthquake.

8. Prepare emergency kits as listed above.

During the Quake:

1. Stay calm.

2. Find a secure place. Stay there until the shaking stops.

3. Inside a house, go under a bed, desk, table, or bench and cover your head with cushions or some other soft objects. Otherwise, stand in a doorway or against a wall away from windows and glass dividers.

4. Inside a public building, get under a desk or something similar, or crouch against an interior wall, head protected with your arms or an object like a briefcase. Do not rush to an exit - stairways may be overcrowded with people and they may be unsafe. Stay away from elevators - power may fail. If you happen to be inside an elevator, stomp on the floor after the quake to get help. If you are in immediate danger, you might try to escape through the trapdoor on top of the elevator - there maybe danger from frie.

5. Outside, keep away from anything that can fall on you - buildings, trees, telephone and electrical wires. Watch out for falling debris, especially window glass. It is better to duck into a doorway than expose yourself to falling debris. If you are on the beach, get off - to escape a tsunami (wall of water) that may be generate by the quake.

6. On the road, stop in a safe place, away from underpasses, overpasses, trees, telephone and electrical lines. Stay in the car.

7. Be prepared for aftershocks. Decide where to take cover if they occur.

8. Don't use matches, candles, any flame because of possible gas leaks. Put out fires.