In Oregon, preparing for disasters means being ready to evacuate from wildfires, prepping for extreme weather events like floods or ice storms, and of course, preparing for the big one- a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake.
Emergency managers say the best way to prepare for disasters is to have an emergency plan, a three-minute go bag- something that you can grab when you need to get out of the house within three minutes- and on a larger scale, to be “two weeks ready” to shelter in place. That’s because in an extreme situation like a catastrophic earthquake, it could take local, state, and federal agencies about two weeks to have resources in place.
If the prospect of gathering supplies to be two weeks ready sounds daunting to you, you’re not alone.
Personally, I know the importance of being ready for disasters–but I must admit, I’m not two weeks ready. I would say my household is a few days ready.
To start the new year, I made a commitment to get my household better prepared for whatever disaster we might face.
I looked around for resources to tell me what to gather up. The State of Oregon has a “Be 2 Weeks Ready” guideline that provides an 8-unit series with essential information and practical steps for emergency preparedness.
As I dug deeper into local resources, I found that my own public utility, Eugene Water & Electric Board, has taken the state’s “Be 2 Weeks Ready” guidelines and mapped out a “Pledge To Prepare” program.
I wanted to know more, so I signed up for one of three informational sessions that were held at the Eugene YMCA this month, and I met others who also had emergency preparedness on their mind.
Like Laura Lehew, who came with two goals:
”More information, and to actually get all the way ready,” she said. “There's thinking you're ready and then being ready, and then being like, if something happens, ready to go in a moment. So all those things, I wanna be accountable for that, you know, and be really ready because I'm sure there'll be some emergency here.”
And Fran Munkenbeck:
“I've accumulated a lot of things over the years, but like I have some of them in the garage, some of them in my kitchen, some of them down in the basement,” she said. “I just need to organize it because if let's say an earthquake comes and my house is down, I won't be able to get to it.”
And Susan Palmer, who said she and her husband Craig are very prepared, but:
“I didn't want to come,” she admitted. “I was like, ‘I'm prepared. I don't need this.’ Craig wanted to come because he's always trying to stay up on things and he thought maybe we'll learn something we didn't know. Like, all right, I'll go to support you, but I don't care. But then the presenter was so dynamic and so informed and had so much experience and I was like, oh, so then I'm looking at the handout and thinking oh I could do this in January oh I need to do this in February. So I started out ambivalent and now I'm kind of excited.”
That dynamic presenter was Jenny Demaris, EWEB’s Emergency Management Specialist.
”Pledge to Prepare is really broken down into sort of 12 bite-sized steps, if you will,” said Demaris. “Because I think EWEB staff, early on, recognized, ‘oh my gosh, there's so much to be done!’ So what they did is really develop what would be realistic and feasible for an average everyday individual or household family, to be able to think through ‘what could we do a little bit every month with the goal being at the end of 12 months, we would really have everything that we need to be the full 2 weeks ready?’”
And that’s the program in a nutshell. A month-by-month guide to help community members gather supplies and information to be disaster ready.
Demaris said this helps make the process more manageable, reducing some of those feelings of being overwhelmed.
“When you start off at the beginning of Pledge to Prepare and you really look at the checklist that we have, you're probably gonna see you have a lot of these things already available to you,” said Demaris. “They just may not be organized in the way that you would need them to make them more accessible to leave immediately or to really hunker down and shelter in place.”
Demaris said the first step is to gather the most basic items that you might need. January’s main focus is on three days of food, water, and cash, and includes information on how to clean and prepare water storage containers.
The more people who are two weeks ready, the better off everyone will be, said Demaris.
“This also allows local governments to be able to focus their attention to our more vulnerable community populations that may not have what they need to be fully prepared,” she said. “So if you can take care of yourself, of your family, that full two weeks or maybe even a little bit longer, then that allows us as local government to really support those in the greatest need.”
While the program follows the yearly calendar, community members can take the pledge anytime. Those who sign up receive a monthly email with step-by-step recommendations to help prepare yourself, your home and your family for an emergency.
So in my personal quest to be disaster ready, I went to EWEB’s website and signed up to take this pledge, and I invite you, our KLCC listeners and readers, to join me.
We’re calling our KLCC project Oregon Ready.
Every month we’ll bring you stories and conversations about disaster preparedness as we all move closer to being two weeks ready, together. We’ll cover what should be in an evacuation “go bag,” pet preparedness, how neighborhood groups fit into the mix, and more. And I’ll periodically check in with others who’ve taken this pledge to see how they are coming along.
To kick off our year-long focus on Oregon Ready, we’d love to collect your questions and thoughts about disaster preparedness. What steps have you taken to be more prepared? If you haven’t taken any steps, what’s holding you back?
Send in your thoughts and questions by emailing questions@klcc.org. And we’ll be adding resources at KLCC.org/OregonReady.
So join me, and stay tuned each month for updates, resources, and events that will help all of us get closer to being Oregon Ready.
