What to do in the seconds a landslide gives you

Almost every other page about landslides is about the weeks beforehand, and that is where the real work sits. But if the slope is already moving, the question is much smaller: which direction, and how many seconds.

The instinct most people have — run downhill, away from it — is the one that gets them hurt. Material always moves downhill faster than a person, so running ahead of it keeps you in the path.

Outdoors: sideways, not downhill

1. Move perpendicular to the flow. The goal is to leave the path, not to outrun it. Sideways out of the track is nearly always shorter than any downhill route.
2. Get out of the drainage. Debris flows follow channels, gullies and ravines, and they run out much further along them than open ground.
3. Go uphill of the track if there is time, and stay off the loose scarp at the top of a fresh slide.
4. If you cannot get clear, curl into a tight ball and protect your head and neck. It is a last resort, and it is measurably better than being caught upright.

Indoors: up and away from the slope

Leaving is better if you can do it in seconds and you know the path. If you cannot:

• Go to the highest floor, on the side of the building furthest from the slope. Debris enters at ground level.
• Get under a sturdy table or against an interior wall away from windows.
• Do not go to a basement or a crawl space. They fill first.
• Do not stop to gather things. The bag either exists by the door or it does not.

In a vehicle

• Do not drive into water or mud across the road. You cannot see whether the roadbed underneath is still there, and after a slide it frequently is not.
• Do not stop under a cut slope to wait out heavy rain. Cuts above roads are exactly where material comes down.
• If material is coming and you cannot drive clear sideways, get out and move on foot out of the drainage. A car is protection from weather, not from a debris flow.
• Assume a road that has slid once will slide again, and do not use it as a return route because it is the one you know.

The moment it stops

The silence after the first movement is not the end of the event. In the hours and days that follow, the same slope commonly fails again, and the loosened material above a fresh scarp has nothing holding it.

• Stay out of the area until authorities clear it.
• Keep away from the toe of the slide. It keeps settling, and it sheds material without warning.
• Look for people from the edge, and report their location to rescue teams rather than digging in unstable material yourself.
• Watch the streams downstream. A slide can dam a channel and release it hours later as a flash flood.
• Assume utilities are broken — gas lines, power and water all run through the ground that just moved.
• Have foundations inspected before sleeping in a house on or below a slope that has moved.

The ZonaProtec monitor shows official landslide and debris-flow warnings where the local agency issues them, alongside the rest of the threats near a point you search.