Home Earthquake Preparedness Resources

A companion to Matt Springer's talk, Home Preparedness in Earthquake Country

This website is moving!

Apple's web hosting servers that have hosted this website will be turned off in June 2012.
The entire website now lives at http://earthquake.matthewlspringer.com.  Please change your bookmarks before June.

This website offers additional information about preparations to take around the home to substantially reduce the chances of suffering injury or damage in an earthquake. 

Presentation schedule:  Check here for an up-to-date schedule of my planned presentations at UC San Francisco and branches of the SF Public Library

NEW!  Check out the QuakeTips blog, where I will be occasionally posting articles and tips about earthquake preparedness.

Photo galleries

For a review of the basic strategies described in the talk, start with the "Basic Precautions" review.  If you have attended one of these talks, you already have a basic idea of the preparations to take and can skip to the "Additional Resources" page, which shows additional real-life examples of solutions for items that are less straightforward to secure.

(Sorry, these may be maddeningly slow with a dial-up internet connection.)

Emergency Supply kit checklist:  Did you not catch everything on the list?  Print it here.

More information:  Ground motion/liquefaction maps, where to get supplies and insurance, how to volunteer for neighborhood disaster response, general questions

(ON THE TOPIC OF LIQUEFACTION:  It has been brought to my attention that I have been oversimplifying my explanation of liquefaction in previous talks in a way that was misleading.  Please note that liquefaction is not merely rearrangement of soft soils, but actually involves water in these soils that reacts to being compressed by increasing water pressure, temporarily forcing apart the soil particles and allowing the ground to behave like a liquid.)

Important information about pets:  Basic precautions to take if you have pets home alone during the day.

Broadcast and streaming video:   The lecture from February 2010 was broadcast on UCTV several times during the last week of April 2010, and will continue to be available by streaming video on demand.  It is not quite as useful as being there in person, but is a good resource (check the schedule page for further details).

Special interest topics from the past:

Special for China Basin audience (updated 7/20/09)   Audience members were told to check this website to learn more about the China Basin seismic stability.

Archived statement about March 2011 earthquake prediction (3/21/11)   Fox News' coverage of a geologist's earthquake prediction made people nervous.  This was my statement about the topic.

For more special interest archives, check out my Quaketips blog.

The suggestions contained in this website and in Matt Springer's presentations will substantially reduce the chances of an earthquake causing damage or injury, but cannot guarantee that problems will not still occur due to factors including but not limited to extreme seismic conditions, unexpected structural problems, bracing material flaws, or inadequate installation. This material is based on personal experience, research, and discussion with safety experts; Matt Springer does not have an official emergency management background other than standard community volunteer training.  The information contained herein does not necessarily reflect the views of UCSF or the San Francisco Public Library.

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