When the next earthquake shuts off services, go to the library

In the six years since Hurricane Katrina battered the Gulf Coast, the federal government has worked to improve its disaster response. Now on the list for federal aid is an institution everyone knows: the local library.

In a disaster, the Federal Emergency Management Agency helps schools, fire stations, even animal shelters pay for temporary quarters. But missing from that list was the local library.

L.A. County Librarian Margaret Todd says Katrina showed the feds that libraries also provide vital services, because, "what we learned in Katrina was that people were desperate to get on to check their email, to fill out their forms — and they were going to libraries to do it. And many of the libraries were shut down. They couldn’t operate. And we were told we weren’t essential."

The Gates Foundation helped reopen libraries in New Orleans. Todd says it also kept track of who used the libraries to prove they were important. This year, Congress included libraries among the essential services eligible for federal assistance.

So after the next earthquake, your library will be near the front of the line for power and Internet service.