Glad you're OK, Cheryl!
Some earthquake safety tips here for everyone.
Check your bedroom to see how close the sliding closet doors are to your bed, if you have any. My friends had those kinds of doors on their closets on each side of their bed. Both sets of doors were knocked off their tracks and fell over on the bed. Bing bang. That might be something you want to change if you have those kinds of closet doors.
Look at what's around your kitchen or dining room table. These same friends had a hutch with glass doors against the wall with their dining room table in the middle of the room. The dining room table fell over first, then the hutch came down on top of the fallen table. If someone had been under that table and hadn't held on to it, they would have been sliced up with glass. Please make sure to bolt all heavy furniture to the wall. Please bolt your house to the foundation. I thought every house in California had already done that but from what I've read about this quake, apparently not. And bolt your hot water heater to the wall as well.
Even if you do that, books are going to slide out. Make sure never to be near bookshelves while there's an earthquake going on. I know at West Valley College after Loma Prieta, they were worried students had been buried by the library books.
Always keep a pair of shoes and a flashlight next to your bed.
Keep your bed away from windows (I have to admit, I have my own bed right under a window - I'm not too bright). Windows can shatter in an earthquake.
Under no circumstances get between cars or cars and any building or unmovable object during an earthquake. During Loma Prieta, I saw cars jumping and moving against the curbs. On the hood is safer. You want to keep your legs.
Always make sure to keep your pets chipped and the info updated. If you have animals in cages, you might want to keep a bread tie around the door so they can't escape if the cage falls over.
Have a copy of your important documents like a DL, passport, etc, within easy reach. That way if they close off neighborhoods to all but the residents, you can prove you're a resident. This happened in the Santa Cruz Mts when they closed off Hwy 17 that ran between San Jose and Santa Cruz. Unless you had proof that you lived up in the mountains, you weren't going to get on that highway, courtesy of the Highway Patrol.
Expect the damage to be severe. Water mains will break, trees may come down and bring down power lines, and cell phones towers will be jammed. Water, gas, and electric may be turned off for days. Gas stations, laundromats, banks, and stores will be closed. Make a plan ahead of time to let your relatives outside the area know you are safe if you get the chance to post online. Also make the same plan with members of your family in case a quake comes while you are separated during the day.
It doesn't hurt to have your upper kitchen cabinets latch shut if you can stand it. Again, my friend's kitchen drawers all opened, then the cabinet doors opened, and all the contents, including dishes, all slid out and broke. Her fridge doors also opened and most of the food slid out from there as well. Not sure what you can do about that.
If you keep water in plastic gallon jugs, make sure the caps are the screw on caps, not the ones that just flip off.
I can't tell anyone to stay inside during a quake. Yeah, I know all about how you're not supposed to run out of buildings during a quake, but I've seen the pictures of collapsed multi-floor buildings and I'll take my chances getting out if I'm in an older building. Never stand next to anything built of brick while there's a quake. Those are always the first things to come down.
The other thing I would suggest is everyone get a small solar panel to charge phones with and maybe keep it in their car.
Cheryl, you might be feeling aftershocks for weeks and weeks. Don't let them get to you. Believe it or not, you're going to eventually be able to just let them roll and not worry about them. And at this point, consider that you've come through the worst. I've been through both the Loma Prieta quake and the Nisqually quake in Seattle and as far as I'm concerned, a 5.0 is now a baby quake and nothing to even turn a hair over. You really do get that blase about them.
