The Pacific Northwest Disaster Guide by Henry Latourette Miller (illustrated by Jeff Parker)
In the past few years, Pacific Northwest communities have experienced catastrophic flooding, landslides, wildfires and damage from severe wind. As close as it is to Whatcom County communities, a Mount Baker eruption would be cataclysmic. And there is the hulking threat of The Big One — a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake — which has about a one-in-three chance of happening in the next 50 years. Will you be prepared if/when disaster strikes?
“The Pacific Northwest Disaster Guide” written by Henry Latourette Miller and illustrated by Jeff Parker promises to help you prepare for earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, landslides, extreme winter weather, droughts, heat waves, wildfires, smoke and volcanic eruptions. The information is presented in an engaging graphic novel format that will appeal to audiences of all ages.
Each chapter begins with an illustrative “when disaster strikes” scenario that shows people responding to various disasters in an engaging graphic story format. Chapters also include pro-tips and “get ready” exercises, as well as a quiz to see how well you absorbed the information.
The closing chapter, “Recovery After Disaster,” makes suggestions for the first two weeks after a disaster when the focus is on assessing damage and getting immediate needs for food and shelter met, as well as how to stay physically and emotionally healthy in the first two months after a disaster.
“Fun” facts I learned reading this book: The last major Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake in 1700 was between 8.0 and 9.2 on the Richter scale and dropped Oregon’s coastline in places by as much as 36 feet! Do not try to outrun wildfire, which can travel at around 14 miles per hour in the right conditions. For protection from flooding, if you do not have access to sandbags, heavy-duty garbage bags can be filled half full of water as a substitute.
“The Pacific Northwest Disaster Guide” is published by Ooligan Press, a student-run publishing house at Portland State University where students pursuing degrees in book publishing can gain real publishing experience and receive mentorship from publishing professionals.
Latourette, currently a city planner based in the Portland metro area, started working on this book after a trip to Japan in 2017 where the Tokyo Metropolitan Government shared a similar illustrated disaster guide. Upon returning to Portland, Latourette worked on an outline for such a book specific to our area. The outline became a class project and, after a delay due to the pandemic, was taken up for publication by Ooligan Press and released in November 2024.
Preparing for disaster can be daunting: What to put in the go bag? Where is the best place to store it? Do I really need to keep a pair of shoes next to my bed? “The Pacific Northwest Disaster Guide” will help you begin to take steps toward preparedness, each of these steps strengthening your prospects and resilience in the face of natural disaster.
Lisa Gresham is the collection services manager for the Whatcom County Library System, wcls.org.
(Originally published in Cascadia Daily News, Sunday, May 4, 2025.)