Your Local Risks
Each hazard links to a dedicated guide covering risk assessment, household preparation, during-event response, and official resources. Start with the ones that apply where you live.
Category 01
Seven hazards driven by atmospheric conditions. These are the most frequent natural disasters in the U.S. and the ones most households will encounter.
Atlantic and Gulf coasts, June through November. Storm surge kills more people than the wind.
The West and increasingly the Plains, Southeast, and Northeast. Season now runs year-round in some regions.
Plains, Midwest, and Southeast. More than 1,000 per year, peak season March through June.
Every state floods. Riverine, coastal, and urban flash flooding. The costliest natural disaster in the U.S.
Slow-onset, no dramatic moment. Strains water supply, amplifies wildfire, and drives food prices higher over months.
The deadliest weather hazard in the U.S. most years. Urban heat islands make cities especially dangerous.
The most destructive winter event for power grids. A half-inch of ice collapses lines across entire regions.
Category 02
Four hazards driven by geological forces. Low frequency, high consequence. The Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and Hawaii carry the highest composite risk.
West Coast, Alaska, and the New Madrid seismic zone. No warning. Drop, cover, hold.
Pacific Coast, Hawaii, Alaska. Minutes to move after a local earthquake. The ground shaking is the warning.
161 active U.S. volcanoes. Ashfall travels hundreds of miles. Lahars follow river valleys at highway speed.
Heavy rain, earthquakes, and post-wildfire burn scars. Warning signs are visible if you know where to look.
Category 03
Five hazards that originate in the systems your household depends on. Power, water, supply chains, and the grid-level events that cascade across regions.
The most common emergency in the country. Caused by storms, grid failures, and demand overloads. Most preventable with preparation.
A Carrington-class geomagnetic storm could disable transformers across entire regions. Preparation is power outage prep at extended scale.
Rail corridors, highways, and pipelines. Shelter-in-place or evacuate. Knowing which and knowing fast matters.
Over 90,000 dams in the U.S., thousands rated high-hazard. Know if you live in a downstream inundation zone.
Grocery stores hold three days of inventory. A rotating two-week pantry is the simplest, most universal preparation.
Category 04
Four hazards where the threat is biological, chemical, or radiological contamination. The preparedness framework shifts from evacuation to sustained household resilience.
Sustained disruption over months. Supply chain stress, healthcare rationing, and the medication buffer that matters most.
48 million cases a year. Power outage food safety, recall tracking, and the kitchen practices that prevent most cases.
Boil orders, chemical spills, and infrastructure failures. The difference determines whether you boil, filter, or switch to stored supply.
Rare but requiring specific responses. Get inside, stay inside, stay tuned. Three steps that cover most scenarios.
Category 05
Two hazards where the threat is human-caused disruption to public safety. Low probability, high impact. Community connection is the long-game defense.
How to use this
01
Pick the three to five hazards most relevant to where you actually live. A coastal household and a mountain household have different top lists. Start with the ones that have happened before in your area.
02
Each guide covers understanding, risk assessment, preparation, and response. Read the full guide, not just the headline. The nuance between hazards is where the real value lives.
03
These guides assume you already have a basic 72-hour kit and communication plan. If you don't, start there. The foundation covers most of the overlap between hazards. The guides add the hazard-specific layer.
Starting from zero?
A 72-hour kit, a communication plan, and a two-week pantry cover the common ground between all 22 hazards. Build that first, then use these guides to go deeper on the risks that actually apply to your area.
Start with the first 72 hours"Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst."
— English proverb
Go deeper
Affiliate disclosure: New World Survival earns a small commission on purchases made through links on this page, at no cost to you. We only recommend gear we'd put in our own kit.