The California & Pacific Coast emergency checklist

Covers: California, Hawaii

This is an emergency checklist for California and Pacific Coast households, built around one hard fact: the region's signature disaster gives no warning at all. An earthquake doesn't have a season. So this checklist is about supplies already staged, not bought the day before. Start with the 3-day list. For a family of four, it begins with 18 gallons of water, calculated for this region and your household.

See your 3-day checklist

Free, no account. Set your household size and every amount updates.

What does "no warning" change?

Everything about timing. Preparation that would be a weekend errand before a hurricane has to already be done here. Water in the garage before the shaking. Sturdy shoes and a flashlight by the bed, because the floor after a quake is broken glass. The gas shutoff wrench already zip-tied at the meter, and everyone in the house knowing which way it turns. The water heater strapped to the studs, which protects both your gas line and forty gallons of drinkable water. Your checklist is a list of things that only work if they're in place first, and it tells you the quantities for each.

What is a PSPS, and why plan for it?

A Public Safety Power Shutoff: your utility turning the grid off on purpose during fire weather, sometimes for days across whole counties. It's the one outage you get notice for, which makes it the easiest one to be ready for. Battery power stations, charged when the notice arrives, are the fire-safe and apartment-safe answer on this region's checklist; they run phones, lights, a fridge in bursts, and medical devices without an engine or exhaust. If someone in your home depends on powered medical equipment, the PSPS plan is not optional, and your checklist scales for it.

What did January 2025 teach about fire and smoke?

The Los Angeles fires burned through neighborhoods in hours and put dangerous smoke over millions who never saw flame. Two lessons, two tools. The go-bag on this checklist exists for the hour-notice evacuation: one bag per person, documents in a waterproof folder, medications, cash, staged where you can grab it. The N95 respirators on it exist for everyone else, because smoke is the version of the fire that visits every zip code. Know your evacuation routes now, and know two, because fire closes roads.

How much water after an earthquake?

One gallon per person, per day, raised by half here because heat waves strain this region too, and water is the system earthquakes break most reliably; mains crack, and repairs are measured in weeks in the hardest-hit areas. Four people for three days is 18 gallons, and this region rewards going deeper. Your strapped water heater holds an emergency reserve behind the tap, and your checklist includes plain unscented bleach and purification tablets, with amounts, for water of uncertain history.

What about everything falling down?

The cheapest earthquake preparation is the kind that keeps the emergency small: heavy furniture anchored to studs, nothing heavy shelved above a bed, cabinet latches in the kitchen. Then the response layer on your checklist: work gloves and a pry bar for jammed doors, tarps and plastic sheeting for broken windows, and the weather radio that still works when the cell network is jammed with everyone calling everyone.

Pick your number of days

Start with 3 days, then build. Each list adds to the one before it.

Want the math behind the amounts? Read how we calculate quantities.