The shaking is uninsurable chaos; what happens in the next ten minutes — gas, water, darkness, locked doors, no information — is largely designable. That's the layer this page covers.
Post-earthquake fires are historically the deadly second act, and broken gas lines feed them. Automatic seismic shutoff valves close the line on strong shaking with no power or electronics needed — and they're required in the City of LA on many transactions and retrofits (LAMC provisions; many neighboring cities have equivalents). We coordinate valve installation through licensed plumbing partners and integrate status monitoring: your panel knows and tells you the valve tripped. Smart-meter-era addition: methane sensors near appliances, monitored like smoke.
Cracked supply lines after shaking flood homes quietly — sometimes days later. Monitored leak sensors under sinks, at water heaters (strapping is code, sensing is smart), behind laundry and at the main, plus an automatic shutoff valve on the main line, turn a $30,000 water event into a phone notification. This is the same infrastructure many insurers now credit — see our insurance guide.
Triggered manually (one button/voice) or by seismic-event integrations where present: all lighting to full (falls happen in dark hallways), designated egress paths unlock, garage opens while power holds (trapped-car syndrome), HVAC shuts down pending inspection, cameras sweep — you check every room from your phone instead of walking through hazards, and an all-clear or evacuate decision takes one minute instead of twenty. Panels and cameras ride the same battery/cellular backbone from our outage guide — earthquakes take grid and internet with them.
Equipment survives shaking when installation anticipated it: racks bolted to structure (not drywall anchors), NVRs and UPS units strapped in racks, TVs on rated articulating mounts, batteries restrained, service loops so cables flex instead of shear, panels located away from likely-fall zones. These are line items in our installs in seismic zones — which in LA means all of them.
Honest limits: no consumer system provides useful early warning beyond the state's ShakeAlert-powered apps, and nothing we install makes a structure safer — that's seismic retrofitting. We handle the systems layer; foundation bolting is a different (worthwhile) trade.
The City of LA requires automatic gas shutoff valves in many circumstances — commonly at property sale and significant renovations — and neighboring cities have similar ordinances. Beyond code, they're the single highest-value earthquake device: post-quake fires are the classic second disaster. We coordinate installation and integrate trip-status monitoring.
Meaningful early warning comes from California's ShakeAlert system via phone apps (MyShake) — seconds of notice at best. Home systems add value after shaking: gas/water shutoff, lighting, egress, cameras and communication when infrastructure staggers.
Full lighting, unlock designated egress, open the garage while power holds, shut down HVAC pending inspection, and give you camera views of every room remotely. We program this as a one-command scene on Control4/Lutron systems.
Well-installed ones generally do: panels have battery + cellular paths, and properly mounted racks/cameras tolerate shaking. The failures we see are installation shortcuts — drywall-anchored racks, unrestrained batteries — which is why seismic mounting is standard in our installs.
Yes — cracked supply lines flood homes quietly after shaking, and water damage claims dwarf most burglary losses. Monitored sensors plus an automatic main shutoff turn the event into a notification; many insurers credit exactly this equipment.
No. Foundation bolting, cripple-wall bracing and soft-story retrofits are structural work by licensed specialists — and they matter more than anything electronic. We handle the systems layer that manages gas, water, light, access and information after the shaking.
Related: Home security in Los Angeles