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Emergency Preparedness
Store Water for Emergencies
Start your emergency preparedness with 1 gallon per person per day for 14 days. That's 14 gallons per person, and don't forget to have some on hand for your pets. See the table (below) for details on how much you need to store.
14 Days Prepared: You Have a Role in Emergency Preparation
Prepare an emergency kit that is able to sustain your entire household for 14 days. That’s how long it is estimated it will take for help to arrive to the Portland, OR metro area after a major earthquake. Until then, you will have to rely on your own resources (including your own water supplies). If you are prepared you will alleviate the community risk, allowing responders to focus on delivering limited resources to more vulnerable members of our communities.
Working Together for Emergency Response
OLWS works closely with partner agencies to help prepare our community for the need for water during emergency situations and disaster preparedness. The Pacific Northwest is not usually thought of as disaster prone, but in the world of water, emergencies come in different shapes and sizes. OLWS encourages its residents to prepare for events that could impact local water supplies.
Visit these partner pages for information on emergency preparedness, then get to work gathering supplies:
- Regional Water Providers Consortium
- American Red Cross
- Ready: the Official website of the Department of Homeland Security
| Number of People | 7 days | 14 days |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 gallons | 14 gallons |
| 2 | 14 gallons | 28 gallons |
| 3 | 21 gallons | 42 gallons |
| 4 | 28 gallons | 56 gallons |
| 5 | 35 gallons | 70 gallons |
| 6 | 42 gallons | 84 gallons |
Regional Water Providers Consortium
OLWS partners with the Regional Water Providers Consortium to ensure that our water system can deliver you the water you need, when you need it 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The Consortium and its 20 water provider members work together on projects that focus on insuring that the greater Portland metro area is resilient. In addition to its own emergency preparedness efforts, the Consortium plays an active role in larger regional planning and preparation efforts.
In recent years, water providers in the Consortium have been conducting seismic upgrades and other projects to make water systems more resilient. Read about some of these projects and learn more about emergency preparedness, please visit their site at https://www.regionalh2o.org/emergency-preparedness.