Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA)

Threat Assessment · Planning

Free download · one-page guide

THIRA for Your Household

Score your hazards, write a worst case for the top few, set capability targets and tag every gap – with a fill-in worksheet, on one printable page.

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What is a THIRA?

THIRA stands for Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment. It’s FEMA’s standard way for states, cities, tribes and regions to answer three questions: what could happen here, how bad could it get, and what do we need to be able to do about it?

It always comes with a second step, the Stakeholder Preparedness Review (SPR). Once the THIRA sets the targets, the SPR measures what you can actually do today and names the gaps. FEMA describes both in Comprehensive Preparedness Guide (CPG) 201, 3rd edition (2018).

What it answers

What to prepare for, how much, and what to fix first

The THIRA

1. Identify threats and hazards · 2. Give them context · 3. Set capability targets

The SPR

Rate what you can do now, find the gaps, and choose how to close them

Gap types

POETE: Planning, Organization, Equipment, Training, Exercises

At home

Same steps, one address, a few evenings of work. Review it every year.

Watch: The Right Hazards (2:20)

A few weeks after the winter storm, Sam asks Dana where to start. She walks him through a household THIRA in Ready Ledger: rank the hazards, check the supplies and skills, then find the gaps. The Harpers are an invented demo family; every screen is the real app.

Step 1: Identify threats and hazards

List everything that could realistically affect your household. Use three groups so you don’t miss whole categories:

Then score each one. The workbook below uses 59 hazards; a quick version rates each on four things:

• Likelihood: how often it happens where you live (check your county’s hazard mitigation plan and local history).
• Impact: how badly it would hurt your household.
• Warning time: days, hours, or none.
• Duration: hours, days, or weeks.

Rank them by the total. Anything that can’t happen where you live (no coastline, no tsunami) gets crossed off. Keep your top five or six; that’s what you plan for.

Step 2: Give them context

A hazard on a list doesn’t tell you what to do. For each top hazard, write one short, realistic worst case for your house: when it hits, how long it lasts, who’s home and who isn’t, and what stops working.

That paragraph does the heavy lifting. It tells you to plan for heat, water, a family reunion plan and a way to talk when phones fail.

Step 3: Set capability targets

Turn each context into targets you can measure: what your household must be able to do, for how many people, for how long. For the storm above:

• Keep one room above 55°F for four people for five days without grid power.
• Have one gallon of water per person per day for five days, plus pets.
• Get everyone home, or to the agreed rally point, within four hours.
• Reach every family member twice a day with phones down (see PACE planning).

Targets beat shopping lists. “A generator” is a purchase; “heat one room for five days” is a goal you can meet several ways and check off.

Then find the gaps (the SPR)

Now be honest about where you stand against each target, in three areas:

1. What you haveSupplies and equipment: water, food, power, heat, medical, comms, go-bags. Count what’s really on the shelf.
2. What you know and can doRate each person’s skills: first aid, generator safety, radio, food preservation. Note the skills nobody in the house has.
3. Where you fall shortRate each capability, then tag every gap with its cause so you know how to fix it.

Work the lowest-rated capabilities for your top threats first. Then set your readiness-condition (PREP-CON) triggers for those same threats, so you know when to step up. Review the whole thing every year, and again after any real event or a move.

Tools to do it