Every time a small one rattles the windows I remember that my entire emergency plan is a flashlight app and a case of sparkling water. I keep meaning to build a real kit and then the weekend disappears on me.
So be honest. Does anyone here actually have one ready, water, cash, shoes by the bed, or are we all quietly hoping the big one holds off? What is genuinely in yours?
Mine is half done, which is probably worse than nothing. I have water and a first aid kit, but the water has been sitting in the closet since 2023 and I never rotate it.
The one thing I did get right is shoes and a headlamp under the bed. Broken glass is what actually hurts people, not the shaking.
I am better on the property side than the personal side, honestly. Every unit I own has the water heater strapped, because that is the cheapest thing you will ever do and it is the one that floods a building.
My own kit is a milk crate in the hall closet: two cases of water, a hand crank radio, a spare phone bank, and about two hundred in small bills. Cards do not work when the power is out.
I got serious about this after the Ridgecrest ones, when I spent a night refreshing my phone with no plan at all.
What is in mine now -> A case of water plus a gallon jug per person, a LifeStraw, protein bars I swap out every birthday so I remember, a crank radio, work gloves and a printed card with my parents numbers on it, because I do not know a single phone number by heart anymore.
The other half is not a kit. Pick an out of state person everyone texts.. and agree on where you meet if the building is not safe to enter. Local lines jam, long distance usually gets through.
Keep it in the car, not the apartment. If the building is not safe you are not walking back in to grab a kit off the closet shelf. Mine is a plastic bin in the trunk.
Mine is technically a kit if you count a case of LaCroix and a drawer of takeout chopsticks. I did finally strap the bookshelf to the wall, which took ten minutes and one trip to the hardware store.
Echo Park here. Two cheap things that take an afternoon: a gas shutoff wrench, about five bucks at the hardware store on Sunset, zip tied right next to the meter so nobody is hunting for it in the dark. Second, fill two empty laundry jugs with tap water and stick them under the sink for flushing the toilet. Drinking water you buy, flushing water you do not.
I swear I got nothing and never even thought about it. Not gonna sugarcoat this. I know they keep warning us about the big one. For some reason, I just never felt the urgency.
That's exactly where I stand right now. 
Some people are more prepared than others. It's like something out of the movies. Deep down, we know that there is some risk. It doesn't even take that much to be a little prepared. I'll look into that.
I would at least stock a first aid kit and some food/water supplies. Some recommend enough for 3 days. Others say prepare for up to two weeks. Then obviously the question is where do you stock it? If infrastructure is damaged, it doesn't help to have it in the living room if you're in the bedroom when it happens.
So most of us will never be fully prepared unless we experience a real earthquake. I have a Japanese friend who went through many earthquakes. Her preparation is on another level. Not only her preparation, but also her government's. For example, Japan's vending machines provide free food and water when triggered by a heavy earthquake.
Wow, our city could really learn a thing or two from them. I have to admit, my level of preparation is pretty much zero right now.