Family Prep
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Emergency Plan
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​Home Hazards
First-Aid Plan

Eliminate Home Hazards 

​How do you prepare your home for disasters? 

• Start with investigating the types of disasters and risks that you are most likely to encounter in  your area to learn about your risks.
• Then, create a plan of action to mitigate these risks.​

​What types of hazards might you face in your area?  Scroll down to learn more. 

Click to open FEMA's National Risk Index

Mitigate Risks and Hazards

Tsunami assembly area. Photo: Neskowin, Oregon, K Ronning-Hall

You can harden your home for fire risks or secure your appliances and belongings to reduce risk in an earthquake.  Check out these links to learn what you can do to make your home more resilient based on the most common hazards in your area. ​

• Home Fires
• Wildfires

• Earthquakes
• Tsunamis

Practice Situational Awareness for Personal Safety

Many actions you take to get prepared, such as organizing a go bag, will help across a variety disaster and emergency scenarios, but learning about your most probable hazards can give you knowledge, skills, and tools to more effectively mitigate your risks. 
Being prepared starts with situational awareness: learning about the potential hazards and risks where you live, work, and play. This awareness will help you better prepare for the most likely hazards in your neighborhood and region, such as extreme weather, floods, wildfires, earthquakes, tornados, as well as other hazards. 
Situational awareness is a skill that is critical for hazard identification, effective decision making, and accident prevention. It means paying attention and being aware of what’s going on around you, looking for potential hazards, and knowing what to do in case something goes wrong.
It’s natural to panic in a crisis. Situational awareness increases survival by helping you predict how dangerous a situation may be, and it gives you a framework for managing a crisis without panicking.

Situational awareness includes these steps: 

1. Observe what is happening around you and take in all the elements of your environment. 
2. Understand the situation you are experiencing.
3. Predict what is likely to occur next based on what you understand to be happening.
4. Take actions to reduce risk.​

OODA loop developed by John Boyd breaks down steps to improve situational awareness.

How to determine your risks

Several online resources can help you assess the disaster risks in your area, including interactive maps based on data collected by scientists.
FEMA National Risk Index
Disasters have been increasing in frequency over the last 20 years, according to FEMA's national risk index for natural disasters. In Oregon, 141 disasters have been declared since 1953. The most frequent risks in Oregon include fires, severe storms, floods, and other hazards.
​Earthquakes are another significant risk that may not happen as frequently, but can be non-the-less extremely dangerous and destructive when they happen. ​Cascadia subduction zone earthquakes have the potential to occur every 190 to 1,200 years. ​Scientists predict that there is a 37% chance that a megathrust earthquake of 7.1 magnitude or greater will occur along the Cascadia Subduction fault zone within the next 50 years, and a 10% chance that an event could occur within the next 30 years. To find out specific risks in your area, check out FEMA's national risk index.   
Oregon Hazard Mapping Tool
Another tool available for learning about your specific hazards in Oregon is the HazVu Statewide Geohazards Viewer, developed by the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI). You enter your address, and check the types of natural hazards you want to see for that address. Check out the 10-minute video below or the blog on the Earthquake Regional Impact Analysis. 
​

FEMA's data shows disasters increasing in frequency in Oregon

Types of disasters in Oregon since 1953 from FEMA risk index

Click the image to open the interactive hazard map