What to do in an earthquake: before, during and after

Running for the door feels like the right move when the floor starts to shake. Disaster agencies in Pakistan, India and the United States all say it is usually the wrong one.

When an earthquake starts, drop to your hands and knees, cover your head and neck, and hold on until the shaking stops. That routine, called Drop, Cover and Hold On, is the core advice from Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Earthquake Country Alliance, a U.S. public safety group.

Quick answer: Indoors, stay inside and Drop, Cover and Hold On under a sturdy table or against an inside wall. Outdoors, move into the open away from buildings and power lines. In a car, pull over and stay in it. Afterward, expect aftershocks, check for gas leaks and stay out of damaged buildings.

This guide gathers the official advice in one place, explains why it changed over the years, and sets out the narrow cases where experts say getting out is the better choice. It was prompted by the magnitude 5.2 quake that shook Peshawar and much of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday, 25 October 2026. For why that region shakes so often, see our explainer on why the Hindu Kush has so many earthquakes.

The first seconds: Drop, Cover and Hold On

1. Drop onto your hands and knees as soon as you feel shaking, before it knocks you down.
2. Cover your head and neck with one arm. If a sturdy table or desk is within a few steps, crawl under it. If not, get down next to an inside wall, away from windows.
3. Hold on to the table with one hand until the shaking stops, ready to move with it. With no shelter, hold your head and neck with both arms.

Stay away from glass, outside walls, tall cupboards and anything that hangs from the ceiling. Do not use lifts.

The logic is simple once you know what actually hurts people. Most injuries in earthquakes come from falling and flying objects, not from buildings collapsing, Pakistan’s NDMA and the Earthquake Country Alliance both say. Strong shaking can also knock you down before you get anywhere, so the person trying to cross a room is the one most likely to be hit by a falling shelf or a sheet of glass. “Drop before the earthquake drops you,” is how the Southern California Earthquake Center puts it, as quoted by Scientific American.

Why the doorway advice died out

Many adults in South Asia were taught to stand in a doorway. The idea came from photographs of collapsed adobe houses in which the door frame was the only thing still standing, according to the Earthquake Country Alliance and Scientific American. In those old unreinforced buildings, the frame really could be the strongest part.

Modern homes are different. Doorways in them are no stronger than any other part of the house, and they do nothing to stop a falling lamp or flying glass, Pakistan’s NDMA says in its 2026 earthquake guidelines. You also may not be able to brace yourself in a doorway while the floor is moving, the Earthquake Country Alliance notes.

Official advice has not caught up everywhere. The Do’s and Don’ts page of India’s National Center for Seismology still lists a doorway as one place to take cover, next to a table or an inside wall. Pakistan’s NDMA, FEMA and the Earthquake Country Alliance all call the doorway outdated. If you have the choice, a sturdy table or an inside wall is the safer bet.

The “triangle of life” and why agencies reject it

Every few years a viral message claims that sheltering under a table is deadly and that you should curl up beside a large piece of furniture instead, in the “triangle” of space it leaves when a building collapses. The idea comes from Doug Copp, an American rescue worker, who based it on what he saw after an earthquake in Turkey and on a 1996 test in which he collapsed buildings with mannequins inside.

The U.S. Geological Survey calls the idea misguided and says it does not apply to buildings constructed in the United States. The Earthquake Country Alliance lists its flaws: most buildings do not collapse, furniture is not always crushed, nobody can predict how a building will fall, and people cannot move reliably during strong shaking. The American Red Cross responded that identifying potential voids is not wrong in itself, but that Drop, Cover and Hold On remains the right advice in the United States.

When getting out can make sense

That Red Cross caveat matters for readers in Pakistan, Afghanistan and rural India, because much of the world does not live in buildings designed to modern codes.

The Earthquake Country Alliance makes one explicit exception to Drop, Cover and Hold On. If you are on the ground floor of an unreinforced adobe building with a heavy ceiling, in a country where most construction is not engineered, it says you should move quickly outside to open space. Lucy Jones, a former USGS seismologist, described a similar exception to Scientific American: someone standing at the entrance of a poorly built building who can reach open ground very quickly.

Both are narrow. They apply to the ground floor, to people right next to the exit, and to buildings that are likely to fail. Trying to run down the stairs of a block of flats, or along a crowded school corridor, while the building is still shaking is the scenario the agencies warn against.

The exception describes a lot of homes in the region. Pakistan’s traditional mud and bamboo “katcha” houses fall outside the national building code altogether, the humanitarian news agency IRIN reported in 2015. A 2020 World Bank review, citing research at Karachi’s NED University, found that about two-thirds of Pakistan’s buildings are brick masonry and only 8% are reinforced concrete. In Kunar, eastern Afghanistan, where a magnitude 6.0 quake killed more than 2,200 people in August 2025, most people lived in mud-brick and stone homes built along steep valleys, AP and Al Jazeera reported.

The honest answer for people in those homes is that no drill makes a weak building safe. India’s National Center for Seismology and Pakistan’s NDMA both put the long-term fix where it belongs: building to code and strengthening old structures.

In bed, on the road or by the sea

Where you are	What to do
In bed	Stay there. Lie face down and protect your head and neck with a pillow, unless a heavy light fixture could fall on you.
Office or tall building	Drop, Cover and Hold On. Do not use lifts. Expect fire alarms and sprinklers to go off.
Outdoors	Move to open ground away from buildings, trees, streetlights and power lines, then drop.
In a car	Pull over away from buildings, trees, overpasses and power lines. Set the parking brake and stay inside until the shaking stops.
Wheelchair or walker	Lock the wheels, get as low as you safely can, cover your head and neck, and hold on.
Near the coast	When the shaking stops, walk quickly inland or to high ground. Do not wait for an official tsunami warning.

Source: Pakistan NDMA Earthquake Guidelines 2026; FEMA Ready.gov; Earthquake Country Alliance.

The coastal row is not only for Pacific islands. Pakistan’s NDMA warns that the Makran Subduction Zone, off Pakistan’s southern coast, can generate very large earthquakes and trigger a tsunami.

If you are trapped under rubble

1. Do not light a match. Gas may be leaking.
2. Cover your mouth with a handkerchief or clothing, and keep still so you do not raise dust.
3. Tap on a pipe or wall so rescuers can find you, or use a whistle if you have one.
4. Shout only as a last resort. Shouting makes you breathe in dust.

Source: Pakistan NDMA; FEMA Ready.gov.

The hours after the shaking stops

Expect aftershocks, and when one hits, Drop, Cover and Hold On again. Check yourself for injuries before helping others.

Gas is the hidden danger. If you smell gas or hear hissing, do not touch light switches, matches or appliances, and turn off the gas valve if you can do so safely, India’s National Center for Seismology and Pakistan’s NDMA advise. Stay out of damaged buildings, because an aftershock can bring weakened walls down.

Use your phone sparingly. FEMA says text messages are more likely to get through than calls, and Pakistan’s NDMA asks people not to clog mobile networks that emergency services need. Stay off the roads in hard-hit areas too: extra traffic slows ambulances and rescue teams, the NDMA says. Follow official bulletins on radio or TV rather than rumors on social media.

What to do: For emergencies, call 112 in India, Rescue 1122 in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and most other parts of Pakistan, or 911 in the United States. Pakistan’s NDMA runs a 24-hour helpline on 051-111-157-157.

Getting a home ready before the next quake

Most of the useful work happens on an ordinary day. Anchor bookcases, cupboards, fridges and TVs to the wall, and keep heavy or breakable things on low shelves. India’s National Center for Seismology adds a detail that fits many South Asian homes: do not keep flower pots on parapets or roof edges, where they can fall on people below. Pakistan’s NDMA advises keeping beds away from windows and from anything heavy that could fall.

Learn where your home’s gas, water and electricity shut-offs are. Agree on a meeting place and one contact outside your area whom everyone will call. Then practice: a drill in which everyone drops under the nearest table takes a minute and makes the move automatic.

What to keep in an earthquake kit

Item	Why
Drinking water and long-life food	Ready.gov advises enough for several days.
First aid kit	For cuts and injuries before help arrives.
Flashlight with spare batteries	Strong quakes can cut electricity.
Battery or hand-crank radio	To hear official bulletins without power.
Whistle	To signal rescuers without shouting.
Sturdy shoes, gloves and blankets	For broken glass, debris and warmth.
Fire extinguisher	The NDMA says to check for fires once shaking stops and put them out.

Source: Pakistan NDMA Earthquake Guidelines 2026; FEMA Ready.gov.

Keep the kit somewhere easy to reach, Pakistan’s NDMA says.

What the 2005 earthquake taught schools

The 8 October 2005 Kashmir earthquake struck on a Saturday morning, just as classes were starting. About 18,000 students were killed when schools collapsed, with counts ranging from 17,000 to 19,000 in figures from UNICEF and the humanitarian agency IRIN. Government estimates put the number of schools damaged or destroyed at about 6,000.

The NDMA’s 2026 guidelines now devote a section to schools, including Drop, Cover and Hold On drills for students and an emergency kit in every classroom. Parents can ask a simple question of their children’s school: when was the last drill?

Myths to stop passing on

Pakistan’s NDMA lists several. There is no scientific evidence that dogs or other animals can sense a coming quake. Quakes are no more likely at dawn. Small quakes do not prevent big ones: they release some stress on a fault, but not enough to stop a large quake.

Nor can anyone tell you when the next one will hit. “Neither the USGS nor any other scientists have ever predicted a major earthquake,” the U.S. Geological Survey says. The International ShakeOut drill, held on the third Thursday of October in many countries, is a useful date to put in the calendar for a family practice run.