Community preparedness — Nevada
Extreme heat, wildfire, earthquake, flash flooding, and the unique challenges of a state where 90% of the population lives in two metro areas while 85% of the land is federal. UNR Extension statewide, CERT teams in Las Vegas and Reno, and ham operators who bridge the gaps.
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Community calendar
CERT trainings, garden workdays, ham radio exams, first aid classes.
17
Counties + Carson City
2
NWS forecast offices
10+
Amateur radio clubs
3
Community colleges
Where to plug in
Nevada's preparedness challenges are as unique as its landscape. Clark County's 2.3 million residents face extreme heat, flash flooding from summer monsoons, and earthquake risk. Northern Nevada deals with wildfire, drought, and Sierra Nevada winter storms. Rural Nevada faces the universal Great Basin challenge: the nearest help is very far away.
University of Nevada Cooperative Extension operates offices across Nevada's counties, with major offices in Las Vegas (Clark County), Reno (Washoe County), Carson City, Elko, and other communities. Programming spans rangeland management, horticulture adapted to desert conditions, food safety, nutrition, 4-H youth development, and fire adaptation communities.
The Master Gardener program trains volunteers for Nevada's extreme arid climate — low-water landscaping, drought-tolerant gardening, and food production in high-desert conditions. Extension's Drought Resources program is critical in a state where water is everything. The Living With Fire program helps communities and homeowners create defensible space in the wildland-urban interface.
The Nevada Division of Emergency Management (NDEM) coordinates the state's all-hazards emergency program through county and city emergency management offices. Nevada's EM planning addresses extreme heat (Las Vegas regularly tops 115°F), flash flooding from monsoon thunderstorms, earthquake risk along active fault systems, wildfire, and the challenges of serving rural counties with very small populations.
CERT programs are active in Clark County (Las Vegas metro), Washoe County (Reno/Sparks), and Carson City. In the Las Vegas metro, CERT training emphasizes extreme heat response, flash flood safety, and earthquake preparedness — hazards that a desert city faces in combination. Training is free.
The American Red Cross Sierra Nevada Region serves Nevada and portions of Northern California. In Nevada, chapters operate in Las Vegas, Reno/Sparks, and Carson City. First aid, CPR, AED, and water safety classes are offered year-round.
During extreme heat events in Las Vegas — the city regularly experiences consecutive days above 110°F — Red Cross opens cooling shelters and conducts outreach to vulnerable residents. The organization also responds to wildfires in Northern Nevada and home fires in the metro areas. Volunteer entry points include shelter operations, disaster assessment, and blood drives.
Nevada has over 10 amateur radio clubs in the ARRL Nevada Section, part of the Pacific Division. In a state where rural communities can be 100+ miles from the nearest town, ham radio is critical infrastructure. ARES teams in both Las Vegas and Reno activate for extreme heat events, wildfires, and flash flooding from monsoon storms.
Getting licensed costs $15 for the exam and about $35 for a basic handheld radio. Study at hamstudy.org. Clubs in Las Vegas, Reno, Henderson, Carson City, and Elko host exams regularly.
Two primary NWS offices serve Nevada: Reno (northern NV, the Sierra Nevada, and the western Great Basin) and Las Vegas (southern NV and the Mojave). NWS Elko covers the northeastern interior. Each runs SKYWARN spotter training.
Nevada's weather hazards include extreme heat (Las Vegas has set national heat records), flash flooding from summer monsoon thunderstorms that drop intense rain on hardpan desert, wildfire driven by drought and high winds, winter storms in the northern mountains, and earthquake risk across the Basin and Range province. Training is free.
Nevada's library systems include the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District (25+ locations), Washoe County Library System (Reno/Sparks), and the Nevada State Library. In Las Vegas, libraries serve as cooling shelters during extreme heat events and provide critical services to a highly transient urban population.
Three community colleges serve Nevada's urban areas: College of Southern Nevada (Las Vegas area, 3 campuses), Truckee Meadows Community College (Reno/Sparks), and Western Nevada College (Carson City/Fallon). They offer EMT certification, fire science, welding, HVAC, electrical work, and culinary trades critical to Nevada's hospitality economy.
Why this matters
Las Vegas is one of the fastest-warming cities in the United States. The combination of climate change and the urban heat island effect means consecutive days above 115°F are becoming more common. In July 2023, Las Vegas experienced its hottest month ever recorded, with multiple days exceeding 116°F. Vulnerable residents — the elderly, the homeless, those without air conditioning — face life-threatening risk when power outages coincide with extreme heat.
Heat is Nevada's most underestimated killer. It kills quietly, without the drama of a tornado or a flood. In Las Vegas, the volunteer networks that matter most during a heat emergency are the ones that know their neighbors — the CERT-trained residents who check on elderly people in their building, the church groups that run cooling station outreach, the Red Cross volunteers who staff public cooling shelters.
Northern Nevada faces different but equally serious hazards. Wildfires driven by drought threaten communities along the Sierra Nevada foothills. Flash floods from monsoon thunderstorms can sweep through Las Vegas streets with almost no warning. And across the vast rural counties of central Nevada, the nearest emergency service may be an hour away.
The organizations on this page build community-level resilience in a state where the hazards are extreme and institutional help is stretched thin. In Nevada, as everywhere, the first response is always your neighbors.
The foundation
Community resilience begins with a household that can take care of itself. Cover the first 72 hours, then extend outward to your street, your neighborhood, your town.
Start with the first 72 hours