By State › Oregon
Oregon: Local Resources
Download all of Oregon as PDF PrintThe skill guides and addenda on this site point to Utah-specific programs throughout, USU Extension, Be Ready Utah, Utah CERT chapters. Oregon has its own direct equivalents for nearly all of them.
Oregon Department of Emergency Management: “Be 2 Weeks Ready”
Oregon’s own household preparedness campaign, the direct analog to Be Ready Utah, is built explicitly around the same two-week horizon this site’s own manual uses as its Tier 1 target, and for the same underlying reason: a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake is expected to leave much of the state’s infrastructure unusable for two weeks or longer, well past the 72-hour standard used in most other states’ campaigns.
Why this matters more here than the name suggests
Oregon adopted the two-week standard specifically because the 72-hour guidance common elsewhere doesn’t reflect what a full Cascadia rupture would actually do to transportation, communication, water, and power infrastructure across a wide part of the state, not just the coast. See the overview page for the hazard data behind this.
Where to find it: oregon.gov/oem publishes the full checklist and planning guidance free.
OSU Extension Service: the direct analog to USU Extension
Oregon State University’s Extension Service runs the same category of skill-building programs this site’s addenda repeatedly point to for Utah, USU Extension, just administered by a different land-grant university.
- Master Gardener Program: volunteer training in sustainable gardening and food production, run through county Extension offices across the state, the same structure as Utah’s Master Gardener program.
- Master Food Preserver Program: over 40 years running, trains and certifies volunteers in safe home food preservation (canning, drying, fermenting); after the core training, volunteers complete 20–40 hours of community service annually teaching others, the same “learn it, then teach it” progression the Water & Food addendum’s Stage 3–4 content describes for Utah’s Master Food Preserver program.
Where to find it: extension.oregonstate.edu; both programs are run through individual county Extension offices, so availability, cost, and schedule vary by county, the same pattern as Utah’s USU Extension programs.
CERT: more than 50 active chapters statewide
Community Emergency Response Team training is free through most local programs and follows the same national curriculum described in the Understanding START Triage guide, disaster medical operations, light search and rescue, team organization, fire safety.
Real, concrete examples of what free actually looks like here
Tualatin CERT runs a free 7-week Basic CERT course twice a year for residents and people working in the city. Milwaukie and Clackamas County run free classes twice yearly, taught by FEMA-certified local trainers, over three 8-hour Saturday sessions (24 hours total). Benton County’s course is free with volunteering afterward optional, not required.
Where to find it: the state maintains a directory of all active CERT programs at oregon.gov/oem; email community.preparedness@oem.oregon.gov if your specific area isn’t listed or you want to help start a program.
Sources
- Oregon Department of Emergency Management, “Be 2 Weeks Ready” campaign: oregon.gov/oem
- OSU Extension Service, Master Gardener and Master Food Preserver programs: extension.oregonstate.edu; Master Food Preserver Program
- Oregon Department of Emergency Management, CERT program directory: oregon.gov/oem
- Local CERT program details (Tualatin, Milwaukie/Clackamas County, Benton County): city and county program pages