{"id":501439,"date":"2026-10-19T21:46:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T21:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/501439\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T21:46:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T21:46:35","slug":"californias-annual-earthquake-drill-is-thursday-heres-what-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/501439\/","title":{"rendered":"California\u2019s annual earthquake drill is Thursday. Here\u2019s what to know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you\u2019re signed up for <a href=\"https:\/\/oaklandside.org\/2026\/10\/02\/ac-alert-oakland-campaign\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AC Alert<\/a>, you may have received a <a href=\"https:\/\/member.everbridge.net\/453003085612570\/notif\/YXKOS5CNC\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">text<\/a> Wednesday morning reminding you about Thursday\u2019s statewide earthquake drill.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here\u2019s what you need to know about the drill and how to prepare for the next earthquake.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s the drill?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shakeout.org\/california\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Great California ShakeOut<\/a> takes place Thursday, Oct. 15, at 10:15 a.m. Held annually on the third Thursday of October, it\u2019s the world\u2019s largest annual earthquake drill.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Millions of Californians are expected to practice three steps to protect themselves during an earthquake: drop, cover, and hold on. If you want to participate, you can register at <a href=\"http:\/\/shakeout.org\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ShakeOut.org<\/a>. Even though it\u2019s scheduled for 10:15 a.m., you can do the drill anytime, anywhere. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shakeout.org\/california\/howtoparticipate\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ShakeOut website<\/a> offers guidance for individuals and groups participating in tomorrow\u2019s drill.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So far, Alameda County has 462,384 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shakeout.org\/california\/participants.php?year=2026&amp;start=Alameda\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">registered participants<\/a>, a slight decrease from 484,000 last year. The county\u2019s highest number of registered participants was 592,594 in 2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This week, the California Governor\u2019s Office of Emergency Services has hosted its annual <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news.caloes.ca.gov\/the-great-california-shakeout-tour-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Great California ShakeOut Tour<\/a>, giving residents in San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, and San Diego a chance to experience a simulated magnitude 7.0 earthquake and learn about emergency preparedness. That\u2019s about as big as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservation.ca.gov\/cgs\/earthquakes\/loma-prieta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">1989 Loma Prieta earthquake<\/a>, the last big one to cause deaths and major damage across Northern California.<\/p>\n<p>How else can I prepare for an earthquake?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alameda County\u2019s AC Alert system encourages residents to download <a href=\"https:\/\/www.earthquake.ca.gov\/get-alerts\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MyShake Earthquake Alerts<\/a>, a free smartphone app that sends time-sensitive notifications when tremors are detected nearby. It also provides information about recent earthquakes and reported damage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For more tips on preparing for an earthquake and resources to help you recover afterward, check out The Oaklandside\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/oaklandside.org\/2026\/04\/02\/oakland-earthquake-emergency-preparedness-big-one\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">earthquake preparedness guide<\/a> or Alameda County\u2019s Office of Emergency Services <a href=\"https:\/\/oes.alamedacountyca.gov\/earthquake\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gform_required_legend\">&#8220;*&#8221; indicates required fields<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re signed up for AC Alert, you may have received a text Wednesday morning reminding you about&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[194239,3934,3978,143,145,144,1492],"class_list":["post-501439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-alameda-county-office-of-emergency-services","tag-earthquakes","tag-emergency","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-public-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}