HI, Bee,

I don't know what your situation is. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and no one comes around here and says "you have 30 seconds to grab stuff and vacate." If there's an earthquake, we get no advance notice. Trying to grab stuff in the total dark while the room is shaking violently is a problem for me. I need shoes to get down stairs I presume will have broken glass. I want a pair of gloves in case something has collapsed into the stairwell. I want a flashlight and dustmask. That'll get me outside in the dark. Is that what you would have grabbed?

If you have a fire, you need a dustmask. If other people live in your apartment building and are trapped in the stairs, you might want to leave them a glowstick so trained responders can find them in the dark. Or maybe not. :-) I don't know your neighbors.

Maybe you'll want water? A small bottle just for personal use? Taking medicine?

But that's really about it, if it's really a life-threatening, damaging earthquake here in the Bay Area. No clothes, no family pictures, just the stuff I need to actually get outside. My longterm gear is already outside in the patio. (Hope the house falls straight down, though.)