Preparing for Natural Disasters in Portland
In the Pacific Northwest, natural geologic catastrophes may be placed into five categories: floods, fires, landslides, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. All five of these catastrophes have occurred in Oregon within the past century. Quite often the effect of two or more events occurring simultaneously greatly accentuates the destructiveness of the episode. Floods are more often than not, accompanied by landslides, mudflows are a significant part of volcanic activity, and a major quake following a flood results in a multitude of landslides. Earthquakes in coastal areas commonly precede tsunamis.
With all of the different natural occurrences that have happened in the last 15 years, you want to make sure that you are prepared in case of a natural disaster. A good first step is to research local groups such as CERT (Community Emergency Response Teams) that can help you to be better prepared for a disaster.
What is CERT?
Never heard of CERT? Here is a basic explanation taken from their website “The CERT Program educates people about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. Using the training learned in the classroom and during exercises, CERT members can assist others in their neighborhood or workplace following an event when professional responders are not immediately available to help. CERT members also are encouraged to support emergency response agencies by taking a more active role in emergency preparedness projects in their community.”
Every few months they are doing practice distribution of food and other drills that can get you comfortable with what to expect if you are going to be hit with a disaster. You can either participate as a CERT volunteer or as a volunteer “victim”. Which if you are a victim, you not only assist the CERT participants in practicing for a real disaster, but you also have the opportunity to see what it would be like if something serious occurred so that you are ready.
Do you want to make sure you have everything you might need in a disaster? Click here for more details.