In practice, though, moving to a new place (say, for employment) and trying to latch onto a living space in that general chaos, is there a short list of people to contact?
Local fire department? Local police department? The emergency planning coordinator who generally gets no respect when it's quiet, and no peace when the cork blows?
I would start with the local emergency management office. When my kid was looking at a house to buy in the Pacific NW, I did a quick check on the county Emergency Management web page. I was rather impressed with what they had there, easily downloadable. For example, there were maps of flood plains and other hazards, so we could readily see where the house was at relative to those risks.
How much will be available directly from the Emergency Management office will probably vary significantly from town to town. Here in Anchorage, the E M website has some general info on the most likely hazards, but finding details on some issues requires a bit more research. However, the E M office page does have links to help start that research.
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