Oregon has small earthquakes all the time; As many as 300 a year. We usually can’t feel these small quakes.
Oregon does have about 15 quakes a year strong enough for people to notice. However, even these don’t cause much damage. In the Northwest, big earthquakes happen very rarely, on average every 240 years. These are called Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes. No one knows for sure when one of these big earthquakes will happen again, but scientists believe it could happen in our lifetime.
Because these earthquakes can happen without warning, it is important to be prepared. Below we offer a packet of information on how your family can prepare for an earthquake. But it can help families with more common emergencies too.
This packet of materials that includes earthquake facts, a guide to help you make an emergency plan, a guide to help you build an emergency kit, and a poster about how to protect yourself if you experience a quake. Download the packet in:
- English Earthquake Primer - English (1.46 MB)
- Español Earthquake Primer - Spanish (1.36 MB)
- русский Earthquake Primer - Russian (1.48 MB)
- Tiếng Việt Earthquake Primer - Vietnamese (1.4 MB)
- Soomaali Earthquake Primer - Somali (1.38 MB)
- 中文 Earthquake Primer - Simplified Chinese (1.74 MB)
- 한국어 Earthquake Primer - Korean (1.53 MB)
- 日本語 Earthquake Primer - Japanese (1.52 MB)
- العربية Earthquake Primer - Arabic (1.43 MB)
- Karen Earthquake Primer - Karen (2.12 MB)
- नेपाली Earthquake Primer - Nepali (1.46 MB)
Quake Resources: Español
Terremotos: The Earthquake Country Alliance is California’s public-private partnership, which educates communities on preparedness, mitigation and resiliency.
Tsunami: Lo Que Debe Hacer | What you should do in a Tsunami zone
Ready: The federal government’s emergency preparedness site.
En Oregon: The state’s Office of Emergency Preparedness has a selection of Spanish-language materials.
Red Cross: In addition to resources on earthquakes, this mainstay of emergency preparedness is reading Spanish-speakers on a host of issues.
Quake Resources: Multiple Languages
A Great Site: The materials put out by the Southern California Earthquake Center don't stop at the state line. Check out these resources (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Tagalog and Vietnamese).
Seven Steps: The USGS published this guide specific to northern California; the tips are helpful to all (English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean).
Family Response: King County, Washington published this family guide to disaster preparedness (Chinese, Korean, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese)
Other Emergencies: Oregonians can pass over the section on hurricanes in this guide published by the southern Texas city of Houston, and check out the tips on responding to all kinds of emergencies, from terrorism to cyber crime (Vietnamese, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, Urdu).
Tsunamis: The International Tsunami Information Center publishes this tip sheet (Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, French, Portuguese, Senegalese).
