How do I find out what emergency risks exist in my area?

Browse by state for a location-specific risk profile covering your most likely hazards. Browse by hazard type to understand a specific risk in depth. Your county emergency management office and FEMA's hazard maps are also authoritative sources for local risk data.

What is the most common emergency in the United States?

Power outages are the most common declared emergency across all regions. Severe thunderstorms are the most frequent weather event. Flooding is the costliest natural disaster by cumulative damage. Your specific highest-probability risk depends on your location — coastal areas face hurricanes, central states face tornadoes, western states face wildfires and earthquakes.

Should I prepare differently based on where I live?

Yes, meaningfully so. The 72-hour foundation is universal. Beyond that, your local hazards determine what additional preparations matter most. A coastal Florida household should prioritize hurricane evacuation and two-week water supply. A Pacific Northwest household should prioritize earthquake bracing and water storage for post-quake water main failure. Local risk drives local preparation.

Your Local Risks — New World Survival

Browse by hazard

Twenty-two hazards across five categories.

Each links to a dedicated guide: what the hazard looks like in your region, specific preparation, during-event protocol, recovery, and local resources.

Weather

Hurricane

Atlantic and Gulf coasts, June through November. Storm surge kills more people than the wind.

Wildfire

The West and increasingly the Plains, Southeast, and Northeast. Season now runs year-round.

Tornado

Plains, Midwest, and Southeast. More than 1,000 per year, peak season March through June.

Flood

Every state floods. Riverine, coastal, and urban flash flooding. The costliest natural disaster in the U.S.

Drought

Slow-onset, no dramatic moment. Strains water supply, amplifies wildfire, and drives food prices higher over months.

Heat Wave

The deadliest weather hazard in the U.S. most years. Urban heat islands make cities especially dangerous.

Ice Storm

The most destructive winter event for power grids. A half-inch of ice collapses lines across entire regions.

“The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.”

— John F. Kennedy, 1962

Earth

Earthquake

West Coast, Alaska, and the New Madrid seismic zone. No warning. Drop, cover, hold.

Tsunami

Pacific Coast, Hawaii, and Alaska. Minutes to move after a local earthquake. The ground shaking is the warning.

Volcanic Eruption

161 active U.S. volcanoes. Ashfall travels hundreds of miles. Lahars follow river valleys at highway speed.

Landslide

Heavy rain, earthquakes, and post-wildfire burn scars. Warning signs are visible if you know where to look.

Infrastructure

Power Outage

The most common emergency in the country. Caused by storms, grid failures, and demand overloads.

Solar Flare

A Carrington-class geomagnetic storm could disable transformers across entire regions. Power outage prep at extended scale.

Chemical Spill

Rail corridors, highways, and pipelines. Shelter-in-place or evacuate. Knowing which and knowing fast matters.

Dam Failure

Over 90,000 dams in the U.S., thousands rated high-hazard. Know if you're in a downstream inundation zone.

Supply Interruption

Grocery stores hold three days of inventory. A rotating two-week buffer is the simplest, most universal preparation.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

— Benjamin Franklin

“The chain is only as strong as its weakest link.”

— Proverb

“Forewarned is forearmed.”

— Latin proverb

Public Health

Pandemic

Sustained disruption over months. Supply chain stress, healthcare rationing, and the medication buffer that matters most.

Foodborne Illness

48 million cases a year. Power outage food safety, recall tracking, and the kitchen practices that prevent most cases.

Water Contamination

Boil orders, chemical spills, and infrastructure failures. The type of contamination determines whether you boil, filter, or switch to stored supply.

Nuclear & Radiological

Rare but requiring specific responses. Get inside, stay inside, stay tuned. Three steps that cover most scenarios.

Security

Terrorism

Situational awareness, the Run-Hide-Fight framework, and community resilience that reduces vulnerability.

Civil Disruption

When daily routines break down for days. Household readiness, reliable information, and knowing your neighbors.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

— African proverb

“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”

— Sir Edmund Hillary

Browse by household

Nine situations most prep advice skips.

The standard checklist assumes a healthy adult household. Most aren't. These are the situations that change the plan — not by adding more, but by changing what gets prioritized.

With young children

Diapers, formula, comfort items, and the household plan rewritten for someone who can't walk to the meeting point.

With teenagers

Independent enough to be elsewhere when something happens. The plan needs roles and check-ins designed for that.

With elderly parents at home

Mobility, medications, and the medical equipment that quietly drives the rest of the plan.

With elderly parents nearby

The "checking on Mom" plan. Who calls, who drives, who stays — when the household and the parent are separate.

With pets

Pets aren't allowed in most public shelters. The evacuation plan has to account for them ahead of time.

With mobility limitations

Stairs, distances, and the equipment that has to come along. Evacuation logistics done right.

With powered medical equipment

CPAP, oxygen concentrators, dialysis, infusion pumps. Power-out priority status, backup power, and the registered list nobody tells you about.

In an apartment

Less storage, no yard, shared utilities, building-wide systems. The apartment plan is different in real ways.

In a rural area

Longer response times, well water, propane heat, and the assumption that help is hours away by default.

Common mistakes

Three ways personalization gets skipped.

01

Preparing for generic emergencies, not local ones

A Texas household doesn't need avalanche gear. A Colorado household doesn't need hurricane shutters. Local risk matters more than generic preparedness. Three real hazards covered beats ten imagined ones partially addressed.

02

Ignoring the situational layer

Most preparation advice assumes a healthy adult household. Most households aren't that. The plan for a household with an infant is different from the plan for a household with a parent on oxygen — not more, different.

03

Looking up local resources during the event

The state emergency management number, the nearest cooling center, the local Red Cross chapter, the CERT program — all worth knowing now, when it's a five-minute search. Mid-disaster is the wrong time to start.

Local resources

The directories worth knowing now.

Save these to a folder. The five-minute task that pays off the day you need it.

FEMA regional offices

The federal coordinating agency for declared disasters. Ten regions covering the US, each with its own contact and resource list.

fema.gov/locations

State emergency management agencies

Every state has one. They coordinate state-level response, run hazard maps, and operate the alert systems your phone uses.

fema.gov state directory

Local Red Cross chapter

Shelter operations during evacuations, blood drives, and the first-aid and CPR certification classes worth taking before you need them.

redcross.org chapter finder

CERT — Community Emergency Response Teams

FEMA-coordinated, volunteer-led training programs run by many local fire departments. Twenty hours of class, free, useful even if you never deploy.

community.fema.gov CERT finder

National Weather Service — your local office

122 local forecast offices, each with regional expertise. The source for the warnings that actually apply to your county, not the generic alerts that don't.

weather.gov

FEMA flood map service

The official flood zone designations that determine insurance requirements — and the gap between the maps and current risk that's worth understanding.

msc.fema.gov

If you're starting from zero

Personalization comes after the basics.

This page is most useful for households that already have a 72-hour kit and a household plan in place. If you don't yet, start with Tier 01 — it's where most of the work pays off, and it's a single weekend.

Start with the first 72 hours