Recently, a tropical storm called Hermine has caused a lot of damage to New York, New Jersey, Maine and Florida.

People go about their lives, not stopping to think of these situations, but natural disasters can happen without any warning.

“People can be prepared to a certain extent, but nobody can predict in a situation like this,” Jonathan Garcia, 18, music major, said. “First of all, if I had old gear, I would replace it (and) I would store canned foods and have an evacuation plan and meeting points.”

Although a natural disaster or an earthquake might not be present in people’s minds, some are aware of this situation and are prepared.

“I used to live in Ohio and we had a lot of tornadoes, so that really scared me,” Ruth Jimenez, 20, kinesiology major said. “Every Wednesday, we would have this huge alarm go off, it kind of made me like aware that this type of stuff is kind of serious.”

Preparing for these situations is not always easy, but is something that must be thought about, since natural disasters do happen and they happen when it’s least expected.

“The city next to me actually got destroyed,” Jimenez said. “In my house I have a pantry, I have canned food and stuff like that, in case something does happen.”

Since situations like this are unexpected, El Camino students can find many tips and resources by going to the EC website and get information on what to do in case of an emergency, because as many other schools do, El Camino has its own protocols for students to follow.

“Basically if we have an earthquake people should duck, cover and hold, then when the quake stops, you (should) know to follow the directions of their faculty and staff and safely try to evacuate out of the building,” El Camino police chief Michael Trevis said.

Aside from finding information online, students can also sign up to receive text messages in case of an emergency.

“For emergency information… we have Nixle, that’s one of our emergency notification systems,” Trevis said. “For people who want to sign up for Nixle, it’s (now) an app, we encourage everybody to do it.”

Students can sign up by texting “ECCPD” to 888777, and students will then be able to get emergency notification messages directly to their devices. Emails are also sent to ECC students to notify them of any emergencies occurring in and around campus.