Every community is different, so it is critical that you identify hazards that are most likely to affect you. By conducting risk and hazard vulnerability assessments, your community can be prepared.

Risk assessments provide information about what hazards are likely to occur in your community. Risk assessment answers the question, “What could happen to adversely impact the community?”

Hazard vulnerability assessments (HVAs) include information about how often each hazard is likely to occur, the area likely to be impacted, and how severe the impact may be. The HVA answers the question, “How and where could each hazard affect the community?”

It is quite likely that your community has already completed risk and hazard vulnerability assessments that merely need to be updated when new information is available or new hazards or vulnerabilities are identified. Be sure to coordinate your efforts with local emergency management and check your Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (CEMP) or other community emergency plans. Much of the work may already have been completed.