actions that a resident of a west coast may include in an earthquake emergency preparedness plan?
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Things you should have in your earthquake plan:
A destination if your home is demolished or unsafe (particularly important if natural gas lines are destroyed/damaged).
Cell phones (they just might work afterwards), better yet satellite phone if you can afford it.
First aid kit/training
A list of individuals to contact (WRITE THIS DOWN). If you are part of a community watch organization, this a great place to start, everyone needs to look out for everyone else.
A earthquake “proofed” house. Eliminate things that can fall easily, strap in your hot water heater, know your shelter room (usually a bathroom, particularly if you have a cast iron tub).
Evacuation routes to public buildings/areas. These include recreation centers, schools, hospitals, police stations, major university buildings (particularly geology or geophysics buildings as these are almost always built to withstand serious damage, Oregon State’s has been estimated to be nearly nuke proof). Contact your local emergency management agency for a list of shelters (they know these well in advance) and know how to get to them, and don’t plan on using your car, if it survives the shaking, the roads likely will not (especially bridges, factor those in).
If you have children, be sure that their emergency contact information is correct at their school, be sure they know what to do if you are incapacitated, this doesn’t simply mean call 911, everyone and their mother will be doing this.
Have an emergency kit in your car and in your house. You should include first aid kits, changes of clothes, clean water, water purification tools, canned food (rotate this and the water regularly), contact information, home owners/health/life insurance information, and anything else you think you’ll need (like tarps, rain gear, pet food, sterno style heaters, et cetera). Your local emergency management office probably has a checklist for this inventory.
Your local emergency management office or FEMA (fema.gov) have lots of information. Fema gets lots of bad press, but their educational section online is great. Check out these particularly:
The IS pages are great, I’ve gone through some 28 of them (for future jobs). You will learn alot if you study it.
I hope this all helps! Email me if you have any questions, emergency management is something I do!