The Los Angeles County Fire Department is encouraging all residents to be prepared for earthquakes, in light of the one-year anniversary of the 7.8 magnitude Nepal Earthquake.

Within hours of the April 25, 2015, earthquake, the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, deployed a 136-person Disaster Assistance Response Team, or DART, comprised of 22 USAID disaster experts and two urban search and rescue, or USAR, teams from Los Angeles County and Fairfax County, Virginia. Twelve search dogs also accompanied the DART.

Since 1988, USAID has deployed USAR teams abroad 16 times for disaster assistance, with only a 72-hour window to quickly rescue trapped victims from precarious situations before they succumb to dehydration or further injury.

Five days after the tremor initially hit, USAR teams pulled a 15-year-old boy out of the rubble in north Kathmandu. After a large aftershock, USAR specialists from the Los Angeles County Fire Department, or LACoFD, also rescued a 41-year-old woman from a collapsed four-story building in the remote village of Singati. During its deployment, USAR team members provided triage and much-needed medical treatment to dozens of survivors.

This year, the LACoFD reminds residents that earthquakes are unpredictable and strike without warning. We all must be prepared to be self-sufficient with enough food, water and supplies for at least three days.

The Los Angeles County Emergency Survival Guide provides information on how to better prepare for a disaster: http://lacoa.org/pdf/emergencysurvivalguide- lowres.pdf.