As a native of the southeast U.S. getting ready to move to San Francisco, earthquakes terrify me -- I've never felt one before. Hearing about last night's 5.6 quake doesn't make me feel any better. I just discovered this emergency alert service that will at least help to keep us informed.
earthquakes keep rents here bearable.
So 20 seconds after the earthquake has stopped you get a text message that says "RUN!"...nice!
Such a service is good for things that can be forecast like tornados, storms,fires(like the recent one in San Diego), tsunamis etc.
It is however of doubtful value for earthquakes. Last time I checked no one had the ability to know when the Earth beneath them will shake.
Too bad for you!
My university (USC) set up a system like this after the Virginia Tech tragedy. It includes email, cell phone / voicemail, SMS, and pagers.
during the San Diego wildfires, lots of people subscribed to KPBS's (local npr radio station) twitter stream as a way to get updates on evacuations. KPBS also had a really good google map up in the first few hours, and was way ahead of everyone else in keeping it up to date. (fwiw i live in SD, work in an area that was under threat of evac).