The 2026 Great ShakeOut falls on October 15 at 10:15 a.m. local time — the date and time are a mnemonic, 10/15 at 10:15. It runs on the third Thursday of October every year, all regions on the same date, and registration is free at ShakeOut.org.

Most households outside the West Coast skip it on the assumption that earthquakes are a California problem. That assumption does not survive contact with the hazard map.

The geography is wider than the reputation

The USGS 2023 National Seismic Hazard Model — a congressionally requested 50-state update used in building codes, insurance rate structures, and risk assessments — found that nearly 75% of the United States could experience damaging earthquake shaking.

That number covers a lot of places that do not think of themselves as earthquake country:

  • The central Mississippi Valley. The New Madrid seismic zone runs through Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Illinois. Eastern rock transmits shaking far more efficiently than western rock, so a given magnitude affects a much larger area than the same event in California.
  • The Pacific Northwest. The Cascadia subduction zone off Oregon and Washington is capable of a long-duration megathrust event, and the shaking would reach well inland.
  • The Wasatch Front. Salt Lake City and the populated corridor of Utah sit on an active fault system.
  • Coastal South Carolina. The 1886 Charleston earthquake caused severe damage across a wide area, and the hazard has not gone anywhere.
  • Alaska and Hawaii, which carry the highest hazard in the country and the most frequent events.

Add the Intermountain West, portions of the Northeast, and Oklahoma’s induced seismicity, and “outside California” stops being a meaningful category.

Why the drill is Drop, Cover, and Hold On

The recommended action is specific, and the specificity is the point.

Drop to your hands and knees before the shaking drops you. Being low makes you harder to knock over and lets you move if you need to.

Cover your head and neck. If a sturdy table or desk is within a step or two, get under it. If not, cover your head and neck with your arms and get next to an interior wall, away from windows, shelving, and anything tall.

Hold On to your shelter with one hand and be ready to move with it. Furniture slides during shaking. A table you are not holding will travel away from you.

Two persistent myths are worth naming because both are actively dangerous.

The doorway is not safer. That advice came from photographs of adobe and unreinforced masonry buildings where a doorframe was sometimes the only element left standing. In a modern wood-frame or steel building, a doorway offers no structural advantage, has no protection from falling objects, and puts you in a spot where a swinging door can injure you.

The “triangle of life” is not the guidance. The claim that you should lie beside heavy furniture rather than under a table has been rejected by USGS, the American Red Cross, and emergency management agencies. It is based on collapse patterns in buildings constructed to standards that are not typical in the U.S., and following it in a U.S. building increases exposure to the thing that actually injures people in earthquakes: falling and flying objects, not structural collapse.

Running the drill in a household

The formal drill takes about a minute. The value is in what you notice while doing it.

Set a time and do it for real. At 10:15 on October 15, everyone drops, covers, and holds for 60 seconds. Not a discussion — the physical motion. This is the whole reason the drill exists: under stress, people default to whatever they have actually practiced.

Then walk the house and look at what would have hit you. This is the part that changes anything.

  • What is above the beds? A mirror, a framed picture, or a shelf over a headboard is directly over someone’s head for eight hours a night.
  • Are tall bookcases, wardrobes, and hutches strapped to studs? Unsecured tall furniture is the most common source of injury and the cheapest thing to fix.
  • Is the water heater strapped? An unstrapped water heater can topple, break its gas line, and start a fire — and it is also 40 or more gallons of drinkable water if you keep it upright.
  • Are heavy items stored high? Move them to low shelves.
  • Where is the gas shutoff, and do you have a wrench near it?
  • Are there heavy objects on wheels that can roll — a piano, a rolling cabinet, a filing unit?

Note where you would be at other times. The drill happens mid-morning. Run the mental version for 3 a.m. in bed and for the moment you are in the car.

Check the outside-the-area contact. After a significant earthquake, local circuits congest quickly while long-distance and text messaging often still work. Our out-of-area contact guide covers how that role works; the drill is a good excuse to confirm the number still connects.

What earthquakes demand that storms do not

Preparedness for weather has a warning phase. You watch a forecast, you fill the tub, you decide whether to leave. Earthquakes remove that entirely — the first notice is the shaking itself, and everything you would have done in a warning phase has to already be done.

That changes what matters in the kit. Sturdy shoes and a flashlight at the bed, because broken glass on the floor in the dark is the immediate hazard. Water stored where a fallen shelf will not block it. A wrench where the gas shutoff is. None of these are exotic; all of them are useless if they are in a bin in a garage you cannot get into.

It also raises the value of aftershock planning. Aftershocks follow, sometimes for weeks, and they hit structures already weakened by the mainshock. The drill motion is not a one-time thing — it is what you do every time the ground moves again.

Registering

Registration at ShakeOut.org is free and takes a minute; it feeds the participation counts that regional emergency management programs use to gauge reach. Households, schools, businesses, and agencies all register the same way.

If October 15 at 10:15 does not work, you can register a drill for any day and time you choose. A drill you actually run in November beats a drill you skipped in October.

FAQ

What time is the Great ShakeOut 2026?

October 15, 2026, at 10:15 a.m. local time — each region drills at 10:15 in its own time zone. Registered participants can also select a different date and time if the standard slot does not fit their schedule.

Should I run outside during an earthquake?

No. Most injuries happen from falling objects, and moving during shaking makes falling more likely. Building exteriors are also where facade elements, glass, and roof tiles come down. Drop, cover, and hold on where you are, and move outside only after the shaking stops.

What if I use a wheelchair or cannot get on the floor?

The adapted guidance is Lock, Cover, and Hold On: lock the wheels, cover your head and neck with your arms (or a pillow or book if one is within reach), and hold on until the shaking stops. If you are in bed, stay there, turn face down, and cover your head and neck with a pillow.

Do earthquakes really happen in the eastern U.S.?

Yes, and shaking travels farther there. Older, colder, more intact bedrock in the central and eastern U.S. transmits seismic energy much more efficiently than the fractured crust of the West, so a moderate event affects a substantially larger area — one reason the New Madrid and Charleston zones carry meaningful hazard despite long quiet intervals.