Washoe County Leadership Academy unveils 'Shake Safe Washoe' earthquake preparedness campaign

Members of the 2025 Washoe County Leadership Academy presented a community-focused earthquake preparedness campaign called Shake Safe Washoe to the Board of County Commissioners on May 27, urging broader public outreach and easier access to preparedness resources.

The project team told commissioners the campaign aims to highlight seismic risk in Northern Nevada, consolidate key preparedness resources, and engage residents through short videos, social media, billboards and event partnerships. "We're actually a very seismically active region. There's 30 faults that could cause damage," said Libby DeHart, one of the project co-leads, summarizing the group's research and outreach goals.

The group proposed four committees — research, written communications, events and production — to deliver discrete products. The written communications team recommended reorganizing the county emergency-management web pages to improve readability and to create a single link directory (akin to a "link tree") for quick access to plan, kit and shelter information. The production group said it produced eight short public-service videos and a social-media package designed to be deployed during a preparedness campaign or in real time during an event.

For public outreach, the events committee described partnerships with the Nevada Seismology Lab and local sports teams. Program lead Dawson Diehl said the team staged a "Shake Up Washoe" night at an Ice Raiders hockey game that included an information table, a raffle for an emergency "go bag" and a demonstration measuring rink activity. The team also reported securing a donated billboard space from Lamar Advertising Company, subject to scheduling and availability, for a proposed PSA asking residents whether their family would "be ready?" and directing them to the link directory.

Academy participants described efforts to improve accessibility and usability of materials by adding headers, summaries, printable resources and icons for easier navigation. The presenters emphasized that much of the emergency information already exists within county resources but is not always easy for residents to find: "The information's there. We just didn't know that it was there," Charlie Nguyen said.

Commissioners praised the students' work and encouraged continued collaboration. Vice Chair Jean Herman noted February is designated Earthquake Awareness Month and suggested weaving preparedness reminders into other large conferences. Commissioner Marylouz Garcia said she welcomed the students' advocacy and recommended including Spanish Springs community events for future outreach.

The presentation closed with the commissioners thanking the Leadership Academy participants for their time and offering to work with staff to explore next steps for the proposed outreach materials and campaigns.