Objective To investigate emergency preparedness of the community-residing elderly,and to explore the influencing factors. Methods A total of 280 elderly people from 3 communities were enrolled by convenience sampling method, and asked to fill out the Emergency Preparedness Assessment Scale and the Disaster Literacy Assessment Scale. Results The community-residing elderly scored 58.09（26.00,78.00） points in emergency preparedness. Older adults′ disaster literacy was positively correlated with emergency preparedness （r=0.370,P＜0.01）. Such factors as the frequency of discussing disastrous events with family members, the degree of being concerned about the occurrence of local disastrous events, and disaster literacy were influencing factors of emergency preparedness （P＜0.05,P＜0.01）. Conclusion Emergency preparedness of the community-residing elderly is at medium level, which highlights a need to ramp up disaster literacy training for the population, in an effort to enhance their emergency preparedness level.