Increasing public resistance to hazardous materials transportation and facility operation has elicited a number of suggestions for improved risk communication, early community participation, and provision of incentives. Another potentially useful but hitherto neglected method of addressing local opposition to hazardous facility siting involves community emergency preparedness for a release of hazardous materials. This paper describes a procedure for analyzing local emergency preparedness in accordance with operational guidance from federal agencies in the United States and scientific principles derived from international research on disasters. This procedure identifies vulnerable areas of a community and assesses the capability of the community to take timely and effective protective actions including evacuation and sheltering in-place. Response capability is first assessed by verifying that local emergency response plans address the elements defined in state and federal guidance. Next, implementation analyses are conducted to determine whether the four critical functions of hazard detection and notification, protective action decision making, warning and public information, and protective action implementation can be accomplished with available resources under local conditions. These analyses indicate the degree to which formally designated emergency response activities of community agencies, as outlined by its Emergency Operations Plan (EOP), together with the informal social processes of emergency response known to operate in disasters, provide reasonable assurance of prompt and effective protective action by the public. Results of these analyses can provide administrative and judicial review processes with conclusions on the overall adequacy of local emergency preparedness, local emergency responders with suggestions as to which emergency preparedness improvements should be undertaken, and local residents with a better understanding of risk mitigation measures.