Column: Resilient communities prepare together

Disasters and emergencies can happen anywhere, and without warning.

In Oregon, we deal with wildfires, floods, heat domes, ice and snowstorms. Then there is the ever-present threat of a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. It’s important for everyone to know what to do, and how to care for one another.

This is why FEMA and the Oregon Department of Emergency Management (OEM) observe National Preparedness Month in September and the Great ShakeOut in October. We want to empower community members to prepare together.

As director of OEM, it’s a top priority for me to help people living in Oregon be ready for disasters. As such, I am excited to announce the launch of a brand-new Be 2 Weeks Ready Toolkit.

The digital version of the kit is available at Oregon.gov/OEM and is offered in English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Vietnamese, with American Sign Language videos coming soon.

This new community-based initiative is designed to help individuals and their communities prepare for emergencies and practice their skills as a group. We encourage people to work through the Be 2 Weeks Ready Toolkit, and when possible, come together to practice their skills and share resources.

We want the Be 2 Weeks Ready program to foster a culture of preparedness within established groups such as faith-based organizations, neighborhood associations, local 4-H clubs, schools, and workplaces. By working together, these communities can enhance their collective resilience and ensure everyone is equipped to handle emergencies.

A great opportunity for community practice, is to participate in the first ever Great Oregon Camp-In the weekend after the Great ShakeOut on October 17. This “camp-in” is the perfect time to test your skills without electricity or running water, and to inventory your emergency supplies.

If possible, camp out for a night in your living room or yard. Maybe invite your neighbors to join you. Get the community involved and practice your Be 2 Weeks Ready skills.

If you don't have a yard—or a full day of camping feels overwhelming—try not using running water or electricity for a couple hours—or even a whole day.

It’s important to note that being two weeks ready doesn’t have to be expensive or happen all at once. There are a lot of effective and low-cost to no-cost actions your community can take today to be ready for tomorrow.

You can find more details about these on FEMA’s preparedness site Ready.gov, but I’ve included a few here:

Visit ORAlert.gov to sign up or update your contact information to receive local emergency alerts.

Enable Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) on your mobile phone.

Understand Oregon's evacuation levels and know the evacuation routes in your area.

Familiarize yourself with TripCheck.com.

Make go bags with survival essentials for every member of your family, including pets.

Please remember to also look to your local leaders for additional tips on how your community is preparing. Connect with your local emergency management office, Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs), sheriff's office, or Tribal police and follow them on social media to stay up to date during quickly changing emergencies.

A pro tip: consider making copies of the important documents you’ll need to get your life back on track after a disaster; scan or take photos of this information and store it in a password-protected online drive or on a flash drive in a waterproof container and keep it with your go bag.

In the end, what I most want for the people of Oregon is to feel empowered, not frightened, when thinking about how they will respond in an emergency.

I know this new Be 2 Weeks Ready Toolkit will help them build meaningful connections with one another that will lead to better outcomes for everyone when disaster strikes.

Erin McMahon is the Oregon Department of Emergency Management (OEM) Director appointed in September 2023. She came to the agency as a retired U.S. Army brigadier general, attorney and combat veteran with 24 years of experience advising state and national leaders on emergent and active emergencies requiring operational and civilian support.