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How to win friends and survive a disaster: 9 Steps to neighborhood preparedness
Do you feel connected to your neighbors? If a natural disaster strikes, your survival may depend on your neighbors, because emergency services will be overwhelmed. Your best chance of survival is to be surrounded by people who are knowledgeable and prepared — people who have your back and know what to do. Your neighbors are your first responders! Check out the video of our Neighborhood Ready program. Scroll down for more details and resources that you can download.

What is Neighborhood Ready?

Neighborhood readiness is a simple, fun way to get to know our neighbors so that you aren’t alone or isolated in a disaster. With a minimal amount of time and energy, you and your neighbors can learn a tried-and-true 9-step survival strategy and craft a plan to follow when a catastrophe hits.

Why get get prepared with neighbors?

Getting prepared is more effective — and more fun! — when you share the responsibility with your friends, family, and neighbors. While some people think they are better off going it alone, the truth is that you'll have a better chance of survival if you do some planning and get to know your neighbors BEFORE a disaster strikes. That's what neighborhood readiness is all about. Sharing skills and making an agreement to check up on each other in the event of a disaster.

In a disaster, your neighbors become your first responders. When a disaster or an emergency occurs, our emergency response agencies like police, fire, and FEMA will be initially overwhelmed. What that means is that you and your neighbors will be on your own! Your survival will depending on your own skills and resources, and those of your neighbors. If your injured or hurt during or after a disaster, your neighbors may save your life or the lives of your family members. Preparing with your neighbors gives you strength in numbers.

Image source: https://www.govtech.com/em/preparedness/will-we-be-ready-for-the-next-cascadia-earthquake

What are the 9 Steps?

This easy 9-step protocol is not a huge time commitment for you or your neighbors. When a disaster, like an earthquake, hits, it triggers lots of adrenalin, panic, fear and confusion. This step-by-step protocol will help you to know what to do first, what to do second, what are the priorities, so you don’t have to stop and sort everything out reactively, or be a deer in the headlights, wasting precious time that can be used to help your family and friends.
The steps follow three simple priorities:

Priority 1: Take care of yourself and your family.
Priority 2: Make sure your home environment is safe.
Priority 3: Gather with neighbors to help each other.

Become a Neighborhood Host

If you live in Cedar Hills or Beaverton, Oregon, and you'd like to host a Map Your Neighborhood meeting on your block, you can contact us for help. We can provide facilitators for your meeting, handouts, and booklets. Let us know if you need help. Check out our information sheet for hosts in Cedar Hills. See Resources for Hosts below for more downloads.

More Resources

Check out these sources for more information and practice:

Resources for Hosts

Sample invitation to neighbors
9 Steps to Take Right After a Disaster - Include in the under-the-bed kit.
Print a map of your block - You can use Google Maps, Or in Portland, www.PortlandMaps.com.
Contact & Utility Worksheet - Ask neighbors to fill out before or after the meeting; create a contact list.
OK & Help Signs - to include in your under-the-bed kit
Labels for gas main shutoff and water main shutoff - As as a nice gift for neighbors, you can print and laminate these labels.
Ideas for your next neighborhood meeting -
Planning + Preparedness +Practice = Resilience

Map Your Neighborhood Resources
If you'd like to facilitate your own meeting in your neighborhood, these materials and training videos may be helpful to you.

Washington County and the City of Beaverton provide Cedar Hills Ready! with printed copies of the MYN booklet when we facilitate a Neighborhood Ready! meeting within our area. Our Neighborhood Ready! Program is based on a foundation of the MYN program, which was developed and copyrighted by © LuAn K Johnson, PhD, the WA State Emergency Management Public Education Program.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors
In this video, you'll hear Claudia Steiner-Fricker talk about Beaverton's Map Your Neighborhood program. Claudia is an Emergency Preparedness Trainer and Beaverton CERT member. She spoke at our 2018 Cedar Hills Ready! QuakeUp! event.

Neighborhood Ready for Apartments & Condos
Neighborhood Ready! isn't just for the suburbs. If you live in a condo or an apartment, checkout download this guide.

Get Ready Now! Booklet
Download our Get Ready Now! Booklet. This booklet contains all kinds of information to help you get prepared. If you'd like to customize this booklet for your community, check out the Neighborhood Ready! program page on the QuakeUp! website.