When a quake hits, the first instinct for many is to run outdoors or huddle in a doorway.
But as hundreds of YouTube videos prove, powerful earthquakes send furniture and glass flying and fracture buildings, raining down debris.
Instead, experts say the safest place during a big earthquake is under a desk or table, where you can drop, cover and hold on.
"If you think back to big earthquakes around the world, the people who survived were those who were underneath something that protected them from debris falling down on them," said Steve Walter, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif.
Tomorrow (Oct. 18) more than 9 million California residents plan to practice dropping and covering at 10:18 a.m. PDT, during the Great American Shakeout.
