Prepare for Disasters and Emergencies
Natural Hazards
Los Angeles County is prone to a variety of natural hazards. Use this page to identify local hazards and prepare your family and community.
- Find your local hazards through Cal OES MyHazards - https://myhazards.caloes.ca.gov
- Find out if your home or workplace is located in a federally-mapped flood zone - https://msc.fema.gov/portal/home
- Find out if your home or workplace is located in a wildfire risk area - https://wildfirerisk.org
- For free multilingual materials on how to prepare for a disaster, visit the Listos California Resource Hub - https://www.listoscalifornia.org/resources/?_resource_topics=mental-health
- Visit the Firewise USA® Program website and download the Toolkit. The toolkit provides key information and participation tips for homeowners and communities to take action to reduce wildfire risks at the local level.
- For additional information and resources, visit the Institute for Sustainable Development’s Resilience Help Desk - https://www.isdus.org/resilience-help-desk
Earthquake Preparedness
According to the California Earthquake Authority (CEA), although most of California's quakes are small in magnitude and cause little or no damage, the Southern California area alone has about 10,000 earthquakes every year. Annually, California typically experiences two or three quakes large enough to cause moderate damage to homes or other structures.
- Click here for more info from CEA on How to Prepare for an Earthquake - Tips for Your Preparedness Plan.
- For CEA tips on Preparing Your Home for an earthquake, click here.
Earthquake Country Alliance (ECA) is a public-private-grassroots partnership of people and organizations that work together to improve earthquake and tsunami preparedness, mitigation, and resiliency. The Earthquake Country Alliance Southern California is one of three regional alliances that comprise the statewide Earthquake Country Alliance.
- Looking for one of ECA's documents in another language? All of ECA's resources on earthquake preparedness are available in 16 languages on the Earthquake Country Alliance website here.
- Information in Spanish can also be found at: Terremotos.org and ShakeOut.org/espanol.
For more information about earthquake preparedness, check out the podcast “The Big One” https://laist.com/podcasts/the-big-one.
Evacuation Preparedness
In the event you are ever in or near a fire evacuation area, it is important to get your bag ready with all of your essentials. For more tips, visit ready.gov.
Mass Violence
Mass violence incidents are becoming more prevalent in our communities. Use this page to find resources for yourself, your family, and your community.
- For general information and resources on mass violence incidents, visit the National Mass Violence Victimization Resource Center - https://www.nmvvrc.org
- For local support and to get involved, visit the Los Angeles County Office of Violence Prevention - http://www.publichealth.lacounty.gov/ovp/GunViolencePreventionPlatform.htm
- For a toolkit of resources, visit the Office for Victims of Crime - https://ovc.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh226/files/pubs/mvt-toolkit/index.html
Terrorism Preparedness
The threat of terrorism is real. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched the "If You See Something, Say Something" public awareness campaign in 2010. Remain vigilant and play an active role in keeping the country safe. If you see something, say something!
Visit the American Red Cross website for tips on How to Prepare in Case of a Terrorist Attack. Download the Terrorism Safety Checklist:
Are You Ready? Make A Plan
Preparedness: Ready.gov
Please find below links to important and useful resources to help you, your household, and/or your organization prepare for when a disaster strikes. For more information, visit the Ready.gov (DHS) website.
As you prepare your plan tailor your plans and supplies to your specific daily living needs and responsibilities.
Preparing Your Congregation for Disaster: Ready.lacounty.gov
Ensure your house of worship has an updated emergency plan. Local churches, temples, synagogues, and mosques are often able to reach community members who may be hard to find. Preparing in advance by having a communication plan, support teams, training and a clear disaster mission will help reduce the stress and confusion that often sets in after a major disaster. Your place of worship can encourage their member families to prepare and be part of relief operations by adopting a disaster mission and training parishioners.
Decide how your place of worship will respond in a major disaster and provide training to your worship community to help carry out your plans.
- Identify potential hazards and threats
- Prepare your buildings for a disaster
- Plan for building evacuations
- Train staff in disaster readiness and response
- Prepare to help your congregation after a disaster
- Prepare to help other members of your community
- Set up telephone calling trees
- Appoint leaders to groups of members to keep the congregation informed of needs