Start by learning and practicing the recommended protective action: Drop, Cover, and Hold on. Teach your family members and friends what to do to survive an earthquake. Also register for and participate in the Utah ShakeOut on the third Thursday of April, or whenever you would like to schedule it. Hold your own earthquake drills several times throughout the year.

Conduct a home hazard hunt. Make sure the water heater is securely fastened to studs in the wall. Make sure you are running flexible gas lines to all gas appliances. Using nylon straps provided with furniture or L-brackets, secure tall furniture like bookcases, curio cabinets, and china cupboards to studs in the wall. Move heavy objects from high shelves to low shelves. Use contact paper or museum putty under items on shelves. Install child locks on kitchen cabinets. Remove sharp and heavy objects from over your beds. Use a decorative safety-chain to hold up chandeliers and lights.
Be Ready Utah Home Hazard Hunt

Keep a flashlight and good, sturdy pair of shoes by your beds every night. You will have them readily available in case the power is out and to protect your feet from sharp objects on the floor.

Prepare a communication plan. Recruit an out-of-state contact and get all contact information for them. Share that with family members. Identify a meeting place outside of your house and another one outside of your neighborhood. If family members are apart when an earthquake happens, they can call or text the out-of-state contact to relay information. And they can go to their meeting place to wait for or look for family members. This increases the likelihood of being reunited with loved ones, and it helps keep local phone lines open for emergency response.
Be Ready Utah Emergency Communications

Build food storage that will last at least fourteen days. Your food storage should include short-term wet canned foods such as soups, stews, meats, fruits, and vegetables; pasta; and other boxed foods. Food storage should also include medium-term (25-year shelf life) dehydrated or freeze dried foods in #10 cans or mylar bags. And you may want to consider long-term storage like dried wheat, rice, beans, etc.

Store a minimum of 2 gallons of water per person per day for a minimum of 14 days. More water would be better. This may need to be used for drinking, cooking, and sanitation. Store water in food-grade containers with a plastic recycling number of 2, 4, or 5. If the water you are storing comes from a culinary system that is already treated and safe for drinking then you do not need to treat it any further for storage. Keep water containers off of bare concrete.
Be Ready Utah Water Storage and Treatment

Assemble disaster supply kits (formerly 72-hour kits) for each member of your family. Include a three-day supply of food, water, medications, and clothing. Also include blankets, a flashlight and batteries, battery-operated radio, other tools, hygiene items, personal items, entertainment materials, copies of important documents, and other essential items.
Be Ready Utah Disaster Supply Kit

Expect aftershocks (additional earthquakes). Drop, Cover, and Hold-on for aftershocks. If you need to move to a different room to assist children, try to do so between the shaking.

If you can do so safely, exit the building. Go to your family meeting place, work rally point, or other appointed area. Take accountability to see if anyone is missing. Provide first aid to those who need it.

Inspect your home or buildings for visible signs of structural damage. If significant damage is discovered, do not re-enter the building.

Check on neighbors and friends, providing assistance if needed.

Put your emergency response plan into action. 

Only turn off the natural gas service valve to the building if you suspect a leak, meaning you can smell a rotten egg odor, hear a hissing sound, or visibly see a gas leak, or if your building is twisted or falling from its foundation; otherwise, leave the valve open. It is recommended that a professional (gas company tech or licensed plumber) turn your gas on, and relight your appliances. Unnecessarily turning off the gas valve causes significant extra work for utility companies and delays for customers in getting the gas turned on.

An excellent source of information on earthquake preparedness is the following publication:

• Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country
• Echando Raíces en Tierra de Terremotos (Spanish version)

Make sure to start taking preparedness steps by visiting our state’s Be Ready Utah program. Be Ready Utah helps people get ready for anything. More preparedness information can be found here. 

From the Earthquake Country Alliance:

Trying to move during shaking puts you at risk: Earthquakes occur without any warning and may be so violent that you cannot run or crawl; you will most likely be knocked straight to the ground. It is best to drop before the earthquake drops you and find nearby shelter or use your arms and hands to protect your head and neck. “Drop, Cover, and Hold On” gives you the best overall chance of quickly protecting yourself in an earthquake… even during quakes that cause furniture to move about rooms and in buildings that might ultimately collapse.

The greatest danger is from falling and flying objects: Studies of injuries and deaths caused by earthquakes over the last several decades show that you are much more likely to be injured by falling or flying objects (TVs, lamps, glass, bookcases, etc.) than to die in a collapsed building. “Drop, Cover, and Hold On” (as described above) will protect you from most of these injuries.

Building collapse is less of a danger: While images of collapsed structures in earthquakes around the world are frightening and get the most attention from the media, most buildings do not collapse at all. Few buildings actually fail completely. In earthquake prone areas of the U.S. and in many other countries, strict building codes have worked to greatly reduce the potential of structure collapse. However, there is the possibility of structural failure in certain building types, especially unreinforced masonry (brick buildings), and some structures constructed before the latest building codes. Rescue professionals are trained to understand how these structures collapse in order to identify potential locations of survivors within “survivable void spaces.”

• Read more on the Earthquake Country Alliance website

Remember that you must ensure your safety first before you can assist others. Drop, Cover, and Hold on during the shaking. Quickly move to your childrens' rooms between episodes of shaking.

In a child’s room, make sure that cabinets and other tall furniture are properly fastened to studs in the wall with L-brackets and suitable screws. Pictures and other wall art objects should never be placed above a crib or bed, as these can fall off the wall and injure a child.

Teach your children correct protective actions, such as Drop, Cover, and Hold on or to stay in their bed if an earthquake happens.

It is unlikely your home will collapse from a moderate to large earthquake. Running out of a building during an earthquake subjects you to falling objects and flying glass. It is much safer to Drop, Cover, and Hold on wherever you are inside the building, taking cover under a desk, table, or other sturdy furniture.

If you live in an unreinforced masonry home, such as those built with brick or concrete blocks before about 1975, it’s unlikely you would see a total collapse. In a worst-case scenario (7.0 magnitude or greater quake for Utah), we expect thousands of unreinforced masonry buildings to collapse, which is still a small percentage of them.

It is unlikely your home will collapse from a moderate to large earthquake. Modern buildings are relatively safe from collapse during earthquakes, but may still experience significant non-structural damage from falling cabinets and other furniture, broken glass, etc.

If you live in an unreinforced masonry home, such as those built with brick or concrete blocks before about 1975, it’s unlikely you would see a total collapse. In a worst-case scenario (7.0 magnitude or greater quake), we expect thousands of unreinforced masonry buildings to collapse, which is still a small percentage of them.

In 2011, the Utah Seismic Safety Commission published Utah Students at Risk: The Earthquake Hazards of School Buildings and continues to investigate and advocate for safer school buildings.

With more than 200 known active faults, Utah is a seismically active state. Naturally, some areas have a greater risk of higher-magnitude earthquakes than others. The Wasatch fault, which extends along the Wasatch Front, is Utah’s most active and hazardous fault.

The Wasatch Front has the potential to be affected by a strong, magnitude 7-7.5 earthquake. Also, many buildings in this region were built before the 1970s, when construction of new URM buildings was prohibited. The combination of these two factors could lead to massive damage during a significant seismic event. Most importantly, this situation puts the safety of those in and around URM buildings at risk.

Those of us who live in areas affected by natural disasters have a responsibility to understand our risk and the steps we can take to lessen it.

At home, you can take actions now to keep yourself and your family safer during an earthquake. Some key actions you can take today include securing heavy objects that have the potential to fall to the floor—pictures, potted plants, furniture, etc. Collect and store key emergency supplies, including water, food, a flashlight, portable radio, medicines and more. Develop a disaster preparedness plan with your family, friends and/or neighbors. Visit Be Ready Utah for more information on how to prepare for an earthquake at home.

At school, administrators can educate staff and faculty on earthquake risk and protocol, hold earthquake drills, and regularly review and update their emergency operations plan. Visit Be Ready Utah’s Be Ready Schools for more information.

One way to cope with a major issue, is to learn more about it. The handbook Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country (Spanish version - Echando Raíces en Tierra de Terremotos) provides information about the threat posed by earthquakes in Utah, particularly along the Wasatch Front, and explains how you can prepare for, survive, and recover from these inevitable events.

• Be Ready Utah Disaster Psychology

Buildings built in Utah after about 1975 were built to various building codes with seismic design provisions. As time went on, the building codes and seismic provisions used in Utah were improved (became more stringent), based in part from building performance data resulting from previous earthquakes and damage and paleoseismic investigations performed by the Utah Geological Survey and others. Modern buildings are relatively safe from collapse during earthquakes.

Generally, people are unable to feel earthquakes below about magnitude 2.5 or so. However, certain soil and valley basin effects are known that can cause earthquakes of about magnitude 1.5 or greater to be felt. You might be located in one of these areas and are feeling a small aftershock.

After a stressful situation, our minds and bodies feel like they are replaying feelings for us. This is a very common anxiety response after an earthquake, as well.