The PCC Ready Bag & Community Resilience Project

The Cascadia Subduction Zone is a 1,000-km long megathrust fault that stretches from British Columbia to Northern California. This subduction zone is where the Juan de Fuca plate meets, and is being shoved beneath, the North American Plate. The last known megathrust earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone occurred just over 300 years ago, in January of 1700. Tsunami deposits along the coast of Oregon and Washington have indicated that megathrust quakes occur here about every 400-600 years, on average (Pacific Northwest Seismic Network). Data suggests that there is about a 40% chance that a large subduction zone earthquake will occur here in the Pacific Northwest in the next 50 years (State of Oregon). Is our community prepared?

A megathrust quake on the Cascadia Subduction Zone would have large impacts on Portland and the entire state of Oregon. Hazards could include ground shaking, building damage, bridge failures, fires, landslides, and more. The Critical Energy Infrastructure along the Willamette River located just north of Portland, poses the additional hazard of a potential oil spill. Additionally, after a large Cascadia event, it is likely that water, sewer, electricity, gas, internet and cell phones will be unavailable for days to many months after the earthquake.

I teach environmental science classes at Portland Community College. After many years of conversations with students, I realized how completely unprepared most PCC students are for "the big one". Over the years, I started to dream up a project where PCC students could learn more about subduction zone earthquakes, how to prepare for one, and receive a starter kit that would help them to be ready for a large earthquake, or any other local disaster.

Catherine Thomas is an experienced PCC ESOL instructor who works with many marginalized students. After wildfires during the past several summers were impacting some of her students, Catherine realized that most of her students didn't have an emergency plan or any emergency supplies. One day Catherine and I sat down and had a conversation about the inequities our students would experience in a large disaster... and an idea was born!

Catherine and I wanted to find a way to increase equity at our campuses while getting our students prepared for the next disaster, We decided to apply for a PCC Eco-Social Justice grant in the fall of 2022 and we were awarded funds to pilot the PCC Ready Bags Project! We were nervous, but so excited to turn this dream into a reality!

Catherine and I are both Community-Based Learning faculty coordinators and strongly believe in experiential learning. When we received these grant funds, we decided that we wanted to involved students in as much of the process as possible. We also wanted to create resources that could be openly shared beyond our classroom and our community.

My ESR 173 (Environmental Science: Geological Perspectives) students developed the materials that went into the Ready Bags: they decided what should go into the bags and came up with a  list of items that we purchased with the grant funds, they created a  checklist and an emergency plan, and they put together background information on our local subduction zone, as well as a list of additional resources. All of these materials were created with a  creative commons license  and can be used and adapted by anyone! They did an amazing job and you can see (and download) all of the resources they created on the  PCC Ready Bag Library Guide .

The materials that were selected for the Ready Bags include:

• Reflective bags: hold the materials and act as a safety vest if needed.
• Emergency Water Filter: in case potable water is not available
• Emergency thermal blankets: for warmth
• Gauze: first aid
• Latex-free bandages: first aid
• Pocket mirror: for signaling
• Whistle: for signaling
• Hand-crank flashlight: nighttime visibility without needing batteries
• Nitrile gloves: protection, first aid
• Lighter: to start fires
• Ziploc Bags: to store important documents, medications, and more.

Students from my class and Catherine's classes assembled the bags and helped pass them out at the events. Other students were involved in tabling at the event and creating advertising and media. The students were really the crucial piece of this entire project.  

"My overall experience was fantastic! I specifically enjoyed working with something that would directly impact my community, and when the day of the event came I was excited to see students flood in and take the bags. This made the effort very worth it, knowing that something I contributed to had a positive impact on people. I would absolutely do it again or something similar, given the opportunity." - an ESR 173 student who worked on the Ready Bag Project

After many conversations with local experts, we decided that we wanted our events to focus on more than just giving students a basic earthquake preparedness starter kit. We wanted students to understand the potential impacts of a megathrust quake for Portland, and how to best prepare, but we also wanted to start building community within PCC and beyond. When a large disaster occurs, it likely won't be the government who will save you, but it will be your friends and neighbors and community members. By building community, together, we increase our resilience for the next disaster. We kept this community resilience lens as we planned our spring term events.

During spring term, the PCC Ready Bag & Community Resilience Project hosted two campus events, one at Southeast Campus and one at Cascade Campus. The events entailed:

• A presentation piece where PCC Geology faculty gave a presentation on the geology of the Cascadia Subduction Zone (Eriks Puris at Southeast and Megan Faust at Cascade) and a representative from Multnomah County spoke about earthquake preparedness.
• A tabling piece where students could speak one on one with representatives from different organizations. Organizations that joined us included:
  • Multnomah County
  • PCC Accessible Ed and Disability Resources
  • PCC Disability Student Advocates
  • PCC Panther Pantry (campus-based food pantry)
  • PCC Learning Gardens
  • Regional Water Resources
• Ready Bag Distribution! Each student got to leave with an earthquake preparedness starter kit!

All in all, the events were a success! We passed out more than 300 bags to students and created a network of students who are more resilient for our next big disaster.

We would like to eventually hold annual events, potentially using the  International Great ShakeOut  day in October as an anchor point. As the excitement of the events wound down, we had a new task at hand: how to turn this pilot project into something that can be sustained. Our grant funding allowed us to host two events at two of our PCC campuses, but our true goal is to get a Ready Bag into the hands of every student who wants one, while continuing to build community and resilience on campus and beyond. In order to do that, we need:

1. Continued funding to purchase items for the Ready Bags
2. A larger network of PCC faculty and staff who would like to collaborate on this initiative.

This is where you come in! We are looking for ideas on how to fund this project and looking for faculty who may want to help us put on an annual event and include their classes in this project. If this is you- please reach out! Our contact information is at the bottom of this page. Thank You!

• We worked with  Re:Solve NW  to create a short video about the PCC Ready Bags project. The video should be available to view soon!
• We participated in the September  Unshakeable Event  aimed at building resilience, knowledge and community for Portlanders who may be impacted by the  CEI Hub  when "The Big One" does happen.
• Taryn presented on the Ready Bags project at the OpenEd24 Conference in Providence, Rhode Island. The project details and student-created materials were shared. You can view the slides from the conference  here .
• We co-hosted two more on-campus Ready Bag events this fall (along with the PCC Women's Resource Center and PCC's Community Based Learning Program).

In the fall of 2024, Taryn's Environmental Science Geological Perspectives class attended the fall on-campus Ready Bag events and then created zines based on what they learned.

All of these materials were created with a  creative commons license  and can be used and adapted by anyone, so please share freely! The zines are printable and the folder includes a video that will show you how to fold them.

•  Ready Bags Zine Assignment 
•  Student-created Zines! 

We are currently collaborating with  Re:Solve NW  on their work to educate Portland about the dangers of the CEI hub during "The Big One".

• Pacific Northwest Sesismic Network. Cascadia Subduction Zone.
• State of Oregon.  Cascadia Subduction Zone .