The northwest is generally one of the safer places to live in terms of natural disasters. I've only ever experienced a few earthquakes myself. Though I live around the Puget Sound and not in continental Washington, where weather can vary much more.
Not to go on about just Washington though, since people are always talking about "The Big One" that'll hit the northwest. The Cascadia Subduction Zone builds up energy for centuries and releases it all at once in a giant earthquake. In the wake of the Tohoku disaster I'd say people are getting more conscientious about disaster preparedness. The scare about tsunamis and radiation hit hard here, with our waters connected to Japan's and all that. Nothing came of it, of course. Though I did take a backpacking trip to the Olympic Peninsula and found some stuff that washed in from Japan, but that's neither here nor there...
The subduction zone runs along major cities like Seattle, Vancouver and yes, Portland. But Seattle and Portland are inland so an upside is we'd likely be protected from any tsunamis from the Pacific Ocean itself.
I dunno how the architecture in Portland fares, but if it's anything like the kind in Seattle then the seismic codes aren't too good. If the megathrust earthquake is in the 9.0 range as expected then buildings definitely wouldn't hold up.
Disaster preparedness is important no matter where you live, but I thought I let'd you know at least a few things to expect in the northwest.
