If an earthquake hits while you're travelling, do these things in this order

If an earthquake hits while you are travelling, drop to your hands and knees, cover your head and neck, and hold on until the shaking stops. Do not run outside. When it stops, get out of any damaged building, and if you are near the sea, walk inland and uphill straight away. Then text your family, tell your embassy where you are, and call your insurer’s assistance line before you pay for anything big.

That order matters more than any single tip. Moving during the shaking puts you under falling glass and masonry, and a traveller who skips the order tends to lose the first hour to panic and the next day to an airline queue. Below is the sequence we brief, the move for each place you might be standing, and the numbers to save in your phone before you fly.

Felt shaking near a coast and want to know if a tsunami alert has gone out? Our live tsunami warning page checks the US, Japanese and Indonesian warning centres every two minutes and maps every strong earthquake of the past 24 hours.

What to do in the first 60 seconds of an earthquake

Protect yourself where you are, because the shaking will be over before you reach a door. The US government’s preparedness site, Ready.gov, gives three moves: drop onto your hands and knees, cover your head and neck with one arm and hand, and hold on until the shaking stops. If you are inside, stay inside, and avoid doorways.

The doorway advice surprises people, because it was a fixture of older safety films. A modern doorway is no stronger than the rest of the wall, and the door can swing into you. Get under a sturdy table or against an interior wall away from windows, and stay low.

Where you are standing changes the move

The rule is the same everywhere: get low, protect your head, keep away from things that can fall. What can fall changes with the place, so this is how the guidance applies to the spots travellers actually find themselves in.

The beach row is the one that kills people who otherwise did everything right. The US National Weather Service lists three natural tsunami warnings: a strong or long earthquake, the sea behaving strangely, and a roar from the ocean. Our explainer on tsunami warnings, advisories and watches covers what each official alert means once it arrives.

The first hour after the shaking stops

Get out of anything damaged, get away from the sea if you are near it, then account for yourself. Ready.gov says to leave a damaged building and move away from it, and never to go back into one. Cracks across a wall, a door that will not close, or the smell of gas are reasons to leave and stay out.

Then communicate once, clearly. Ready.gov notes that texts are more reliable than calls after an earthquake and save battery. Send one message to your family with where you are and that you are safe, and post one update on social media for everyone else, so fifty people do not ring you on a jammed network.

Keep your passport, phone, charger, medication and cash on you for the next few days. Hotels may evacuate guests at short notice during aftershocks, and you may not be allowed back in to collect a bag.

Aftershocks are the part travellers underestimate

Large earthquakes are followed by aftershocks for days or weeks, and some are big enough to finish off weakened buildings. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake that hit southern Panama on 9 October 2026 produced a magnitude 6.6 aftershock about two and a half hours later, USGS data show. The USGS aftershock forecast issued the next morning gave these odds of at least one more magnitude 6 or larger:

Every forecast is specific to its earthquake, but the shape is typical: the risk is highest in the first days and fades slowly. For a traveller that means two practical things. Do not move back into a cracked hotel because the first night passed quietly, and do not plan a road trip through the damaged area in the first week. Our Panama earthquake coverage shows how this played out on the ground.

Who to call, and in what order

Local emergency services first if anyone is hurt, then your government, then your insurer. Your embassy cannot pull you out of rubble, but it can tell your family you are safe, replace a lost passport and pass on evacuation information. Save these numbers before you fly.

Call your insurer’s emergency assistance number before you book an expensive flight out or a new hotel. Many policies expect you to contact the assistance company before major medical or travel costs, and it may be able to rebook you faster than an airline queue. If your passport is buried or lost, our guide to a lost or stolen passport abroad walks through the first 48 hours.

Getting home, and who pays for it

Your airline owes you a refund or a new flight if it cancels, but rarely compensation, and your insurance decides the rest. Airlines treat earthquakes as outside their control, so EU and UK delay payouts do not apply. In the US, a cancelled or significantly changed flight you choose not to take must be refunded in cash. Our flight rights guide sets out each country’s rules.

Insurance is where most money is won or lost, and it turns on when you bought the policy. Our guide to whether travel insurance covers an earthquake explains the known-event rule, the 24-hour clauses and what to keep for a claim.

Our verdict

Stay put during the shaking, move with purpose afterwards, and make your calls in order. We have guided treks in Nepal since 1998, a country that lives with earthquakes, and the briefing we give is short on purpose: protect your head, get out of anything cracked, get off the coast, text home. Everything else, from flights to claims, can wait an hour. The two things to do tonight, before any trip, are to save your embassy’s number and check what your policy says about natural disasters.

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Sources: Ready.gov, Earthquakes (US Department of Homeland Security); US National Weather Service tsunami safety guidance; US Geological Survey event us6000u18k and its aftershock forecast of 10 October 2026; US Department of State, emergency assistance numbers and STEP; UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office consular contact; Smartraveller Consular Emergency Centre. All read 10 October 2026. Photos: Jakub Zerdzicki, Disney Magat and Greta Hoffman via Pexels (Pexels licence).