Rotate your supplies at least yearly (very important)- that includes the unopened packages of various batteries (for radios, flashlights, etc).

Keep a pair of shoes under the bed and a pair of comfortable shoes in the car (in case you are away from home, wearing those heels we women are prone to wearing and find roads blocked). For that same possibility, a car kit that includes a lightweight backpack with the things you might need to get to a shelter or to your family is nice to have.

Keep a flashlight next to the beds and check periodically to make sure the batteries are still good (in the Northridge quake I was the only one in this home whose ‘next to the bed flashlight’ was still working and easily located).

Establish an outside the state contact to relay information- that everyone knows and can call is useful. Sometimes connections by phone to locations within the state won’t go through but telephoning outside the state will be possible (I don’t know why, but by experience I know it is sometimes true). From within a shelter there will be emergency phones that can also be used to contact your relay person to pass messages to meet up with loved ones who have become separated.

It isn’t a “chicken little” sort of thing to make preparations. I believe it is what the responsible person does. We have the basic preparations in place, and without obsessing about it, check at least annually to make sure they are in order. When the Northridge quake happened, though our preparations were not extensive (and in some cases have changed/grown since then), they were sufficient to get us through several days at home without power and with an uncertain water supply.