Emergency Preparedness
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6correct to beat the crowd
50 free Emergency Preparedness trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Disasters rarely give much notice, which is why knowing what to do before one arrives matters more than any piece of equipment. This emergency preparedness quiz turns that knowledge into a game: the advice that emergency agencies actually give, the old tips that turned out to be wrong, and the stranger chapters in the history of getting ready for the worst. The questions cover what belongs in a home kit, how families plan to reach each other, and how to stay safe in earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, fires and winter weather. Others look at warning systems, Cold War civil defence, and the ways different countries prepare their citizens. Most of it is pitched so that children, classrooms and scout groups can play alongside adults, with a few harder questions for the experts. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so it works as a family quiz night, a safety-week lesson or a printable handout.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01FEMA informally gauges a storm's severity by whether which always-open restaurant chain has shut?
Waffle House
Waffle House trains jump teams and keeps a cut-down menu for power cuts, so a closed branch signals real trouble. Florida emergency chief Craig Fugate coined the index after Hurricane Charley in 2004.
Q 02The shiny foil blankets packed in emergency kits were first developed in 1964 by which organisation?
NASA
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center created the metal-coated plastic film for the space programme. It reflects up to 97% of radiated heat, which is why so thin a sheet keeps a person warm.
Q 03America's two WP-3D Orion hurricane hunter planes are nicknamed after characters from which TV series?
The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show supplies the names: one plane is Kermit and the other Miss Piggy, and each carries its character on its logo. A smaller jet that joins them on storm flights is called Gonzo.
Q 04A 2011 CDC blog post taught disaster readiness by telling Americans how to survive which fictional threat?
A zombie apocalypse
A zombie apocalypse, the agency joked, calls for the same supplies and family plan as any real emergency. Its article, Preparedness 101, covered what a household needs for the first couple of days.
Q 05A 2003 Homeland Security advisory told Americans to stock plastic sheeting and which toolbox staple to seal a room?
Duct tape
Duct tape and plastic sheeting were meant to seal a room against a chemical, biological or radiological attack. Ready.gov's kit list pairs the two, along with scissors, for sheltering in place.
Q 06Which spot in a house did old earthquake advice wrongly call the safest place to stand during the shaking?
In a doorway
In a doorway is no stronger than any other part of a modern house, and it gives no protection from flying objects. Experts now say to get under a sturdy table instead.
Q 07Which old piece of tornado advice do US forecasters now call useless and a waste of precious time?
Opening the windows
Opening the windows was once thought to equalise the pressure and save the house. Forecasters now say the tornado will blast them open anyway, and the seconds are better spent taking shelter.
Q 08In January 2018, phones across which US state received a false alert warning of an incoming ballistic missile?
Hawaii
Hawaii spent 38 minutes believing the warning before a correction arrived. Officials blamed a miscommunication during a drill at the state's emergency management agency.
Q 09The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a backup store for the world's crop seeds, lies on an Arctic island of which country?
Norway
Norway dug the vault 130 metres inside a sandstone mountain on Spitsbergen. More than a million seed samples have been sent there as insurance against the loss of other gene banks.
Q 10Ready.gov tells American households to store at least how much drinking water per person per day?
One gallon
One gallon covers both drinking and sanitation, and the stockpile should last several days. A normally active person takes in about three quarters of that amount in fluids daily.
Q 11Emergency agencies advise doing what instead of phoning a relative after a disaster, when networks are jammed?
Sending a text
Sending a text needs far less bandwidth than a voice call, so it gets through more reliably when everyone is on the phone at once. Ready.gov also suggests social media and email for checking in.
Q 12During a power cut, an unopened refrigerator will keep its food safely cold for roughly how long?
Four hours
Four hours is the limit for a closed fridge, after which chilled food may no longer be safe. A full freezer does far better, holding its temperature for about 48 hours.
Q 13To make doubtful tap water safe to drink, US guidance says to keep it at a rolling boil for how long?
One minute
Q 21Which 2005 hurricane, after thousands of animals were abandoned, led Congress to require pets in evacuation plans?
Katrina
Katrina left many thousands of pets abandoned, which pushed animal welfare onto the national agenda. The PETS Act of 2006 makes states seeking federal disaster aid plan for pets and service animals.
Q 22From 1953 until 1979, Atlantic hurricanes on the official US lists were all named after which group?
Women
Women alone lent their names from 1953, replacing a confusing phonetic alphabet of Able, Baker and Charlie. Men's names joined the Atlantic lists in 1979, a year after the Pacific ones.
Q 23When the 2005 and 2020 Atlantic hurricane seasons ran out of names, forecasters turned to which alphabet?
Greek
One minute at a rolling boil is enough, and Ready.gov calls boiling the safest way to treat water. Pouring it back and forth between two clean containers afterwards improves the flat taste.
Q 14US fire officials say a household smoke alarm should be replaced once it reaches what age?
Ten years
Ten years from the manufacture date is the limit, however well the alarm still seems to work. In between, the US Fire Administration says to test it every month.
Q 15In a house fire, heavy smoke and poisonous gases collect first in which part of a room?
Along the ceiling
Along the ceiling is where the smoke gathers first, which is why fire plans teach families to crawl low to the exit. Smoke and toxic gases kill more people in house fires than flames do.
Q 16Ready.gov says to keep a little money at home in which form, since ATMs and card readers may fail?
Small bills
Small bills are advised because ATMs and credit cards may not work just when a household needs to buy fuel, food or supplies. The stash should be modest and kept somewhere safe.
Q 17FEMA's basic emergency kit list includes which small item so that a trapped person can signal for help?
A whistle
A whistle is on the list for exactly that purpose, and it works without batteries. The same basics include a flashlight, a first aid kit and a battery-powered or hand crank radio.
Q 18Ready.gov's basic emergency kit list includes a wrench or pliers so that a household can do which job?
Turn off utilities
Turn off utilities is the note beside the tools on the list. Natural gas leaks and explosions cause a significant number of the fires that follow disasters, so everyone at home should know where the shut-off is.
Q 19Which nickname for a 72-hour evacuation kit comes from Korean War army slang for a hasty retreat?
Bug-out bag
Bug-out bag borrows the order given to US Army units in Korea to fall back before they were overrun. The kit is packed for getting away quickly, not for long-term survival.
Q 20Earthquake drills teach three steps: drop to the ground, take cover under a table, and then do what?
Hold on
Hold on means keeping a grip on your shelter and being ready to move with it if the shaking shifts it. Together the three steps protect against falling debris.
Greek letters such as Zeta, Eta and Iota named the overflow storms, but the public found them confusing. The World Meteorological Organization dropped them in 2021 for a spare list of ordinary names.
Q 24The Saffir-Simpson scale sorts hurricanes into Categories 1 to 5 using which single measurement?
Sustained wind speed
Sustained wind speed alone sets the category, so the scale says nothing about rain or flooding. A storm becomes a hurricane at 74 mph and reaches Category 5 at 157 mph.
Q 25On a US National Hurricane Center forecast map, the widening 'cone' shows the probable path of what?
The storm's centre
The storm's centre is all the cone tracks: it is sized so that two-thirds of past forecast errors fall inside it. That makes it a guide to the path, not to how far the wind and rain will reach.
Q 26More than half of flood drownings in the United States happen when people do what?
Drive into floodwater
Drive into floodwater just 12 inches deep and most cars will be carried away. Six inches of fast-moving water is enough to knock over an adult.
Q 27Which weather hazard is responsible for the most deaths in a typical year in the United States?
Extreme heat
Extreme heat causes more deaths each year than any other weather hazard. Older adults, children and people with certain illnesses are most at risk when high heat and humidity last for days.
Q 28Drivers stranded in a blizzard are told to keep the exhaust pipe clear of snow to avoid which poisoning?
Carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide from the engine can build up inside a snowbound car when the tailpipe is blocked. Forecasters also say to open a window a little for fresh air while the motor runs.
Q 29A 'red flag warning' from the US National Weather Service tells the public that conditions are ideal for what?
Wildfires
Wildfires ignite and spread fast in the drought, very low humidity and high winds that trigger the warning. Firefighting agencies often change their staffing and equipment as soon as one is issued.
Q 30Hundreds of old carved stones, some warning villagers not to build homes below them, line the coast of which country?
Japan
Japan's tsunami stones tell people to head uphill after a large earthquake, and some are more than 600 years old. One professor says they matter because it takes about three generations to forget.