Skip to content
Know Portland

The Big One

The Big One is a large earthquake expected to occur at anytime and cause considerable damage across the Pacific Northwest region.

As a Portland resident, it’s important to be prepared for the Big One by having a plan and a kit. Below are recommended steps for getting ready, as well as links to city and state resources.

Steps to prepare

The guide below is based on the CDC guide for preparing for an earthquake, but adapted for living in Portland.

  1. Read over the Ready.gov Earthquake Guide.
  2. Know the signs of an earthquake.
  3. Learn the safe spots.
    • Portland Maps is an excellent resources for learning about the prominent risks to your neighborhood and place of work. Look up your address and scroll down to Public Safety, Hazard section. There you’ll see the assessment of mud slide risk, liquefaction (will the soil become liquid), and damage potential from the earthquake.
  4. Plan and practice what to do if an earthquake strikes.
    • Establish a communication plan with your family. If the earthquake occurs while members are at work or school, you’ll want to have a plan for how to get in touch with each other. Assume that communication lines will be disrupted.
  5. Drop, cover, and hold on during your earthquake drill.
  6. Create an evacuation plan.
    • If you are in near the coast when the earth quake hits, you’ll want to immediately head inland to higher ground in order to avoid flooding and a tsunami. If you’re already inland, like the greater Portland area, you should be safe from the Tsunami, so evacuation plans will be oriented around local conditions, like mudslide and liquefaction risk.
  7. Create an emergency kit. Here’s the link the general federal emergency supply kit: https://www.ready.gov/kit.
  8. Sign up for emergency alerts at https://oralert.gov/.
  9. When the earthquake hits, it’s expected that emergency responders will be under great demand. If you’re able and situation is secure, it’s recommended that you check on your neighbors and assist as much as possible. In natural disasters, 95% of people are helped, rescued, or saved by neighbors, not from professional first responders.

In addition to this list, we highly encourage reading over the FEMA and Portland documents below.

Disability Resources

If you’re disabled, you can take additional steps to prepare for the Big One. The city of portland has a guide here describing how to prepare as well as city resources.

Occasionally, the City of Portland holds listening sessions for people with disabilities on topics related to emergencies (a link to a list of the listening sessions was not able to be found).

A 2021 audit found the city of Portland was not prepared to provide equal access to emergency services that met the needs of people with disabilities.

At the time of writing (October 28, 2023), I’m not sure what actions the city has taken in response to the audit.

Resources