Prepare for Natural Disasters

The possibility of an earthquake literally comes with the territory when your lab is in California. But for Jayme Hong, the 5.1-magnitude earthquake in Lab Habra in 2014 was a definitive call to action. “I was at a dog park about 10 miles away; there was a really, really loud thumping sound and the ground was shaking. It was very scary,” she says. “I thought to myself, what if this happened at the lab? Are we ready for it?”

Hong, CEO of IDOC Dental Laboratory in Orange, reached out to the Red Cross. In exchange for a donation to the organization, a representative visited the laboratory and gave a one-hour presentation to the staff about what to do when disaster strikes. For example, the first instruction is to get under their benches or desks. Each workstation now has emergency packs that include water, a protective mask and a whistle to signal rescue crews in the event of a disaster. In addition, Hong...