The Earthquake Survival Guide

If you plan having an earthquake, have it at 4:35 in the morning
This will guarantee that most people will be safely tucked up in bed. The likelihood of large numbers of shoppers out on the streets will be eliminated and it's really only a few night owls who most likely will be too drunk to notice the difference.

If you have an earthquake at 4:35 in the morning, make sure your building code is up to scratch
No good having the majority of your population tucked up in bed if the house or abode comes crashing down around their ears. This sort of defeats the purpose of having the population off the streets during the earthquake.

Torches
You can never have too many of them.

Battery Radios
You can never have too many of them

Inverters
Realistically you can only have one, but if you have several cars... Also Subaru's would be good for inverters as they use batteries that could power a small town.

Water
The more the merrier. Keep it fresh as well, so that water that was stored away two years ago, won't be too flash.

Cooking
Barbeque's all of a sudden go from being a luxury to a necessity. Also gas hobs are great. You need not sacrifice that morning coffee.

If the initial earthquake is scary, aftershocks are just plain mean
They keep you awake, they send you scurrying under the doorframe, they damage stuff, they put you on edge, they are unpredictable...

Solar power during power outages
A little untested as the power wasn't off for long enough. The idea of solar power for the hot water is good, but I'm not sure if the pump works of the grid.

Canterbury people are as accurate as quake drums
Taken a bit of practice but we are becoming as good at measuring earthquakes as a quake drum. And it becomes a bit of a competition. Only major failure is everyone SWORE that 5.1 shake was much bigger.