Checklist: Natural hazards

An emergency plan should include preparing for a variety of hazards.

Natural hazards

Geological hazards

• Earthquake
• Tsunami
• Volcano
• Landslide, mudslide, subsidence

Meteorological hazards

• Flood, flash flood, tidal surge
• Water control structure/dam/levee failure
• Drought
• Snow, ice, hail, sleet, arctic freeze
• Windstorm, tropical cyclone, hurricane, tornado, dust storm
• Extreme temperatures (heat, cold)
• Lightning strikes (wildland fire following)

Biological hazards

• Foodborne illnesses
• Pandemic/infectious/communicable disease (Coronavirus, avian flu, H1N1, etc.)

Human-caused events

Accidental

• Hazardous material spill or release
• Nuclear power plant incident (if located in proximity to a nuclear power plant)
• Explosion/fire
• Transportation accident
• Building/structure collapse
• Entrapment and/or rescue (machinery, confined space, high angle, water)
• Transportation incidents (motor vehicle, railroad, watercraft, aircraft, pipeline)

Intentional

• Robbery
• Lost person, child abduction, kidnap, extortion, hostage incident, workplace violence
• Demonstrations, civil disturbance
• Bomb threat, suspicious package
• Terrorism

Technology caused events

• Utility interruption or failure (telecommunications, electrical power, water, gas, steam, HVAC, pollution control system, sewerage system and other critical infrastructure)
• Cybersecurity (data corruption/theft, loss of electronic data interchange or ecommerce, loss of domain name server, spyware/malware, vulnerability exploitation/botnets/hacking, denial of service)

Source: Ready.gov