What one person learned about preparedness in the Pacific Northwest — and decided to share.
In July 2015, Kathryn Schulz published an article in The New Yorker called "The Really Big One." It's about the Cascadia Subduction Zone — the 600-mile fault running from northern California to British Columbia — and the magnitude 8.0-to-9.2 earthquake that seismologists say is inevitable. Not possible. Inevitable.
I read it in 2016. I had a young family. The feeling of being helpless in the aftermath — no water, no plan, no idea what to do when the shaking stopped — unsettled me in a way that didn't go away when I closed the article.
So I did something about it. I built my own family-sized emergency kit. Not because I'm an expert. Because I'm a father who didn't want to be caught wondering what to do while his kids were scared and the water wasn't running.
The process of building a kit taught me more than the kit itself. I learned that preparedness is boring to think about and urgent to have. I learned that most of what you need is already at the hardware store and the pharmacy. I learned that the hard part isn't money — it's sitting down for a Saturday afternoon and doing it.
I also learned that almost no one does it. Not because they don't care, but because the information is either terrifying or bureaucratic. Government sites give you checklists with no context. Survivalist forums assume you want to live in a bunker. There's almost nothing in between — nothing that says: "You're a normal person who lives in a specific place. Here are the specific things that could happen. Here's how to be ready. You can do this."
That's what this site is trying to be.
"Have 72 hours of water" is technically correct and practically useless. It doesn't tell you why — that in a major Cascadia earthquake, municipal water systems across western Washington and Oregon will likely fail because the pipes run through fill soil that liquefies under seismic stress. When you understand the why, you understand why 72 hours might not be enough, and why three gallons per person per day is the real number.
Every guide on this site is specific to the Cascadia bioregion — the ecological and geological region stretching from northern California through Washington and Oregon to coastal British Columbia, unified by the Cascadia Subduction Zone, the Cascade volcanic arc, and a shared climate. Not "earthquake preparedness" in the abstract — earthquake preparedness for someone who lives in Seattle, Vancouver, Olympia, or on the coast where the tsunami warning comes with a different clock.
Preparedness isn't about anxiety. It's about care. You build a kit because you have people who depend on you. You make a plan because you want to be the person who stays calm when the shaking starts. You learn the geology because understanding something is the opposite of being afraid of it.
Nothing on this site is designed to frighten you. Some of it is sobering — the Cascadia Subduction Zone is real, wildfire seasons are getting longer, and ice storms don't care that you meant to buy a generator. But the point is always the same: this is manageable. You just have to think about it before it happens.
Every guide on this site is built around one question: will this actually change what you do? I tell you what you need, why you need it, how much of it, and where to find it. Context, not just checklists.
The act of building your own kit — choosing the items, understanding what each one is for, knowing where everything is — is itself part of the preparedness. It's harder to panic when you packed the bag yourself.
I'm not a seismologist, fire scientist, or emergency management professional. I'm a person who lives here and has done the homework. Where I reference science, I cite my sources. Where professional guidance exists, I point you to it. Where I'm working from personal experience rather than expertise, I say so.
The best emergency preparedness resource is still your local emergency management office. This site is a supplement, not a replacement.
If you live west of the Cascades, start with the earthquake guide. East of the Cascades, start with wildfire. In a river valley, flooding. Rural or on the islands, winter storms. Pick one and read it.