Oregon Tsunami Clearinghouse

Preparing communities.

1. Nehalem Bay

2. Rockaway Beach

3. Southern Lincoln County

4. Bandon

5. How is your community preparing?

Learn How

Earthquakes and the tsunamis that can result from them are inevitable in the Pacific Northwest -- but the damage is not. How prepared is your community?

Earthquake and Tsunami Community Disaster Cache Planning Guide

cover of National Tsunami hazard Mitigation Program (NTHMP) Tsunami Information Guide

From Oregon OEM and DOGAMI. A Community Disaster Cache is a stock of supplies designed to support a local population in its response to a disaster. Disaster caches take many forms and can be designed to accomplish different purposes. Along the Pacific Northwest (PNW) coast, numerous groups have developed disaster caches in various forms and have lessons to share. The goal of this Planning Guide is to distill such information to assist communities as they prepare for the next great earthquake and tsunami that will strike the PNW coast of Oregon and Washington. This Guide provides a four-step planning process: 1) Design, 2) Implementation, 3) Maintenance, and 4) Deployment, as well as case studies, strategies, templates, and sample budgets and operations plans.

FEMA Community Rating System Fact Sheet

Tsunami Preparedness & the Community Rating System (PDF)

Tsunami Evacuation Drill Guidebook: How to Plan a Community-Wide Tsunami Evacuation Drill

This guidebook is intended to help communities along the coast plan and implement community-wide tsunami evacuation drills. Whether your community is planning its first walk-out drill or preparing for more complex evacuation exercises, the following pages offer guidance and recommendations based on best practices and the experience of coastal communities and emergency management professionals.

- Oregon Office of Emergency Management

"Beat the Wave" maps

Read more about "Beat the Wave" maps This ongoing series of maps shows the same green safety areas as on DOGAMI's tsunami evacuation maps, with the addition of arrows that indicate the most efficient routes.

Up and Out: Oregon Tsunami Wayfinding Research Project

Tsunami readiness consists of preparation, evacuation, and response. Preparation can be made now through increased awareness and education. Evacuation is the time when individual and community preparation is put into operation and where survivability will be decided in a matter of minutes. Evacuation success depends on how prepared individuals and communities are and is guided by ongoing public outreach including the clarity of routes, signs, and symbols that help people evacuate as quickly as possible. In these reports, through a partnership between Oregon Emergency Management (OEM) and the Portland Urban Architecture Research Laboratory (PUARL), innovative wayfinding schemes are examined to help coastal communities build community resilience before, during, and after a catastrophic tsunami event.

South Clatsop County Resilience Guide - Guidelines for Achieving Community Resilience, January 2015

The South Clatsop County Resilience Guide, prepared by the Oregon Partnership for Disaster Resilience, provides information about community resilience and a structured approach that can be used by communities to improve resilience to natural hazards. The guidelines include resilience assessments and goals. Although the guidelines were developed in partnership with north coast communities, they are a good source of information for use by any community considering planning for community resilience.

Preparing for a Cascadia Subduction Zone Tsunami: A Land Use Guide for Oregon Coastal Communities, January 2014

The Land Use Guide, prepared by the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD), provides coastal communities examples of comprehensive plan language and development code provisions that can serve to help communities reduce their risk to tsunami hazards. These examples are intended to provide general guidance allowing communities to tailor land use policies and regulations appropriate to their individual circumstances.

Community Tsunami Preparedness, 2nd Edition

Community Tsunami Preparedness is now live on the MetEd website and available in the FEMA EMI Independent Course catalog as IS-326.

This module is designed to help emergency managers prepare their communities for tsunamis. Lessons include basic tsunami science, hazards produced by tsunamis, the tsunami warning system, the importance of public education activities, and how to craft good emergency messages and develop tsunami response plans. The module also contains links to extensive Reference and Resources sections. Login required but registration is free.

Oregon Coast Visitor Tsunami Awareness project
Read more about Oregon Coast Visitor Tsunami Awareness project

Funded by the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program (NTHMP) and hosted on the Oregon OEM site, the the Oregon Coast Visitor Tsunami Awareness project exists to improve the visitor?s awareness of the tsunami hazards and to support the hospitality industry on the Oregon coast in becoming more prepared for tsunami events.