The Drill Protects You. Here’s What Protects Your House
This Thursday, October 15, at 10:15 a.m., Pasadena and cities across California will stop and practice the Great ShakeOut: drop, cover, hold on. It takes about a minute, and I want you to do it.
But notice what the drill covers. It protects you for the thirty seconds the ground is moving. Nothing in it protects the house you walk back into afterward. That part is on us, and it is mostly an hour of unglamorous work with a flashlight.
What to know
- The City's three steps are exact: DROP onto your hands and knees, COVER your head and neck with one arm and hand, HOLD ON until the shaking stops. Registering at ShakeOut.org is encouraged, but in the City’s words, “Registration is not required to participate.”
- The houses that get hurt worst around here are the older ones on a raised foundation — a crawl space, wood framing, built before 1980. If the short "cripple" walls under the floor are not braced and the house is not bolted to its foundation, the house can slide. It is the single most common thing I find, and it is fixable.
- California's Earthquake Brace + Bolt program offers up to $3,000 toward that retrofit, plus up to $2,650 more in Southern California for households with income of $94,480 or less. Registration is not open right now — the program takes sign-ups for a notice when the next window opens, so get on the list rather than waiting to hear about it.
What to do
- Hold the drill at 10:15 with whoever is home. Busy at 10:15? Do it that night at dinner. A minute is all it takes.
- Take a flashlight into the crawl space or basement. Look for steel bolts through the wood sill into the concrete, and for plywood on the short walls. If you see neither, you have your answer.
- Strap the water heater — two straps, upper third and lower third, into studs. A loose heater is both a flood and a gas leak.
- Anchor the tall furniture to studs: bookcases, dressers, china cabinets, the big TV. Take the heavy mirror off the wall above the bed.
- Find your gas shutoff, make sure you can reach it, and keep the right wrench next to it. Then put sturdy shoes and a flashlight under each bed.
- Walk the garage and the hallway. Anything stored overhead that you would not want landing on a car or a kid comes down to the floor today.
How we help
We do foundation bolting and cripple-wall bracing on San Gabriel Valley houses, and we do soft-story retrofits on small apartment buildings. If you are not sure what you are looking at down there, I will come walk the crawl space with you and tell you plainly whether your house needs work or whether it is already fine — plenty of them are. The consultation is free, and if the house qualifies for a Brace + Bolt grant, we will say so and help you be ready for the next registration window.
Now get the family ready. Our free Earthquake Ready checklist has 24 short items: a family plan, phone alerts, an emergency kit, the house basics above, and a neighbor network. It opens on your phone and remembers what you have checked.
Open the Earthquake Ready checklistSource: City of Pasadena Encourages Community to Participate in the “GREAT SHAKEOUT” set for October 15, 2026 at 10:15 a.m., City of Pasadena, October 5, 2026.