A major earthquake has not struck California's largest city in 3 decades. On Thursday we'll get a glimpse

A major earthquake has not struck any of California's largest cities in more than three decades, but experts and officials say the so-called “big one” is a matter of when, not if, it will happen.

The danger is by no means isolated, even in a country of this size.

“It should come as no surprise that 70% of Californians live within 30 miles of an active fault,” Jeremy Lancaster, a California state geologist, said during a recent webinar. “We have seven active volcanoes, we have landslides, we have tsunamis, we have thousands of miles of active faults.”

But what should you do when the ground finally starts shaking? That's where Thursday's annual ShakeOut earthquake drill comes in.

Southern California will install ShakeOut drills at the Los Angeles Emergency Operations Center downtown; The San Francisco Bay Area event will be held in front of Oakland City Hall.

Here's what you need to know about the drills, and how best to prepare for a seismic disaster:

Drop, cover and wait at 10:16 a.m. Thursday

This might make sense to Californians who grew up here and remember drills in school, but perhaps not so much to those who moved here from out of state. During an earthquake, the best thing you can do is land, cover and hold still when you feel shaking or receive an early warning alert.

“Get down on the ground, take cover under a sturdy object like a table, and hold on until all the shaking stops,” Wendy Bohun, chief of the Earthquake Hazards and Earthquake Engineering Branch at the California Geological Survey, said in a recent social media video.

Isn't it safer to just run outside?

Some people may instinctively want to run outside when the shaking starts. But there are reasons why this is not the preferred response in California.

One of the most dangerous places for earthquakes to occur is right outside a building, where you can be injured by falling glass or bricks. Brick buildings in particular tend to fall outward, so running one out during an earthquake can be especially risky, structural engineers say.

During the 1989 magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquakes and the 1994 magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake — the last two major seismic events in California to hit densely populated areas — about 50% of reported injuries were caused by objects falling on people, Lancaster said.

Falling to the ground under something like a table and staying still helps protect you from falling objects. Studies of the Loma Prieta and Northridge earthquakes revealed “that you are twice as likely to be injured in an earthquake if you are indoors and moving around,” according to Sarah McBride, executive director of the California Seismic Safety Commission.

“Most of the injuries that were recorded, sustained and treated were motion-related injuries, because people were moving around trying to do things,” McBride said during the webinar.

Studies in other states with a similar building stock to California, such as New Zealand, confirm that “drop, cover and wait” is generally “the best preventive measure for most situations, but not all,” McBride said.

Studies suggest that the reasons people may not follow this motto is because they may feel embarrassed to do so, or because they care for children and want to help them first.

But there are a number of examples where running is not the best option. During the Northridge earthquake, a mother in Rancho Cucamonga died after rushing to check on her baby and hitting her head on the bed.

Is there any way to warn me of an earthquake before I feel the shaking?

There is a free app available for iOS and Android devices called MyShake, which was developed by UC Berkeley and is provided in partnership with the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services.

MyShake receives messages from ShakeAlert, the USGS early warning system. For people a little further away from the epicenter, the system uses the lightning speed of today's telecommunications system to send early warning of incoming vibration, which moves at the slower speed of sound in rock.

Many users can get pivotal seconds of warning that shaking is coming, or at least confirmation that what they are actually feeling is in fact an earthquake. This can give people time to drop, cover, hold on, or take another appropriate action, such as laying down a kitchen knife.

How should I secure my home?

Head to the hardware store and look for ways to properly attach bookcases to walls, look for earthquake-friendly ways to hang glass picture frames, and secure TVs to the wall so they don't topple in an earthquake.

It is also important to hook up water heaters properly, as this reduces the risk of fire.

You should also check to see if your house or apartment needs updating.

There is a common type of defect in many older homes in California – especially those built before 1979 that have a few steps above the ground.

They are vulnerable because they are attached to the foundation by a short, flimsy wall known as a “cripple wall,” making the house vulnerable to the foundation being uprooted when it shakes. It costs about $5,000 to fix this problem in Southern California and $6,000 in Northern California.

Grants are available through the California Housing Mitigation Program to help offset the cost of this type of retrofit. The registration period has been extended to Friday. Orders can be placed at groundbracebolt.com.

A house in Fillmore sits askew six months after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, having slid off its foundation.

(Joe Policy/Los Angeles Times)

Owners can apply for financing of up to $3,000. For the first time, the program now allows owners to obtain financing for homes they rent, “allowing landlords to apply for a retrofit grant opportunity for their investment properties,” according to the program.

Apartment owners should also know if their buildings need to be retrofitted. Many apartment buildings in California are seismically defunct.

The term applies to apartment buildings built decades ago in which the basement contains space for a garage, carport, or retail store. In these buildings, the ground floor may be stabilized by flimsy, slender columns that can collapse when shaken side to side in an earthquake.

The ground floor of a “soft-storey” apartment building can collapse when it shakes from side to side. The supports of these buildings are too flimsy to withstand shaking from side to side in the event of an earthquake.

(Raul Ranua/Los Angeles Times)

Find out if you live in a tsunami danger zone

Recent tsunami warnings in California have prompted officials to reiterate the need for residents to know whether they live, work or frequent hazard areas.

Where are tsunami hazard areas located in California?

Tsunami hazard areas can extend to bay and riverside areas relatively far from the Pacific coast.

Zoom in and pan the map to see areas at tsunami risk in the state

The California Geological Survey has a map showing the areas, and knowing if you frequent any of them can help you mentally prepare for the need to evacuate if a tsunami warning sounds. More importantly, knowing now can also let you know if it is necessary to evacuate.

During the last tsunami warning, some residents in Northern California who live in coastal areas — but at a high enough elevation to be safe from any tsunami — were unnecessarily evacuated, and actually fled to low-lying areas that were at risk of flooding.

In other areas, such as in Berkeley, some residents mistakenly believed it was impossible for a tsunami to enter San Francisco Bay, and opposed following the city's evacuation orders.

Experts say there is more work to be done in educating people about tsunami dangers.

What makes California so vulnerable to earthquakes?

The same geological forces that helped shape California's dramatic mountains and beaches—and that allowed us to ski and surf in the same day—are the same forces that pose a seismic risk in the future.

Despite its bad reputation, California is actually the second most seismically active state in the country — Alaska is No. 1 — “but since there are about 40 million people in the state, we are No. 1 in earthquake risk,” Lancaster said. A single earthquake in California could potentially cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

The last major earthquakes – those with a magnitude of 7.8 or 7.9 – did not occur in modern times. The last earthquake of this magnitude struck Northern California in 1906, destroying much of San Francisco. A previous earthquake struck central and southern California in 1857, when the region was still sparsely populated.

Small earthquakes preceded a large earthquake on the San Andreas Fault in 1857, estimated at magnitude 7.8 or 7.9.

(Raul Ranua/Los Angeles Times)

The areas that can experience the most damaging shaking in earthquakes are generally areas along active faults in California, Bohon said. That includes places in Southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area, according to the California Geological Survey's updated map of earthquake potential.

What do officials do?

California is better preparing itself against earthquakes. On Wednesday, the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services began construction on a new campus in Costa Mesa to serve as Southern California's disaster and emergency headquarters. The office's current headquarters are located in Mather, just outside of Sacramento.

On May 6, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a new law requiring seismic retrofitting of certain high-rise concrete buildings owned either by the county or in unincorporated areas, where 1 million people live. The province has set a deadline for the retrofits within 20 years.

But there is still much to be done. While some local governments across California have required retrofits for older buildings at risk from earthquakes, many others have not. Questions remain about the resilience of water supply and utility systems after a major earthquake.

One big concern is the risk of fire after an earthquake, and whether firefighters will have access to adequate water.

“Anywhere in California could be hit by a strong earthquake,” Bohon said. “So it's really important that you know what to do.”

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