As Earthquake Awareness Month comes to a close, efforts to protect high-risk residents and businesses owners will continue year-round, as does the threat of a seismic event. Roughly 10,000 earthquakes occurred in southern California last year alone, and hundreds of seismic events occur every day around the globe. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), earthquake losses in the United States total about $4.4 billion annually, with nearly 85% of that damage expected to occur in California, Oregon and Washington. Other high-risk states include Alaska, Arkansas, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming. In the slideshow above, Reiner Braun, CPCU and senior managing director of the National Property Practice at Beecher Carlson/Brown & Brown, Inc. details five ways to protect your assets and avoid potentially devastating losses in the event of an earthquake. Related: Earthquake preparedness: What to do before, during and after