Shaking costs buildings in Morgan Creek $0.47 a year per $1,000 of value, 16 times the typical town’s
Little of the land around Morgan Creek has burned: 0.1% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.003% a year. In Health Canada’s survey, just 0% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Morgan Creek grades B for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Morgan Creek’s hazards
For Morgan Creek, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Morgan Creek faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Morgan Creek grades B for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Morgan Creek’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #59 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,520 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 70 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Morgan Creek: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Morgan Creek’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
At 0.003% of the land a year, Morgan Creek’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Morgan Creek’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 16 km away.
About as much forest grows next to Morgan Creek’s homes (8.2% within 5 km) as across 25 km (5.9%).
Shares of land within 5 and 25 km of populated blocks: burned at least once in 1986–2025 (CWFIS burned-area composite), forest fuel and grass (fire behaviour fuel types, 2026, 250 m grid).
Burn rate a year, towns in British Columbia · highest of 255
Some fire is mapped around Morgan Creek (0.003% a year), but it ranks only 191st of 255 towns in British Columbia; Oliver has 0.98%.
Each bar: the yearly average share of land within 25 km of a town’s homes that burned, 1986–2025 (CWFIS); the seven highest towns of 2,500 people or more.
Some fire is mapped around Morgan Creek, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 7.5% rank higher.
Bands of the yearly burn rate: low under 0.05%, moderate under 0.25%, high under 1%, very high 1% or more; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Canadian Wildland Fire Information System: National Burned Area Composite 1986–2025 and fire behaviour fuel types (2026), Natural Resources Canada. Measured within 25 km and 5 km of each populated dissemination area; past fire, not a forecast.
Morgan Creek is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by City of Surrey
Flood studies whose area touches Morgan Creek, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
One study on the inventory touches Morgan Creek, City of Surrey’s from 2015, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Serpentine & Nicomekl River Climate Change Floodplain Review Phase 2 | City of Surrey | 2015 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in British Columbia: 76% of towns have one, against 58% nationally, and Morgan Creek is among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Morgan Creek’s homes are at risk.
The inventory’s own caution (NRCan): “The Canada Flood Map (CFM) does not include every flood hazard map in Canada and may be incomplete or contain inaccuracies. It should not be relied upon as the official source of flood mapping information. Furthermore, if a map appears to be missing, this does not necessarily mean that the area has never been mapped. For the official version of a map, updated information, or confirmation of applicable regulations, please contact the local authority responsible for flood mapping.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Shaking is Morgan Creek’s costliest hazard: $0.47 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Roughly 15.7 times the typical $0.030: Morgan Creek’s $0.47 marks real seismic exposure.
Behind earthquake risk sits data gathered across the city of Surrey, with Morgan Creek one part of it.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in British Columbia expects $0.36 a year; Morgan Creek expects $0.47, and Duncan $1.33.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Morgan Creek is in the top tenth of Canada’s 2,611 towns for earthquake risk; 1.6% rank higher.
Each column: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more in that range of yearly loss per $1,000 (NRCan, 2022).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Morgan Creek.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Little radon around Morgan Creek: 0% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
At 0% over the guideline, the area around Morgan Creek is under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Morgan Creek doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Fraser South health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Morgan Creek (0%) than in the typical town in British Columbia (1.8%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Under 5% puts Morgan Creek with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% have more high tests.
Each bar: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more whose survey area had that share of tests over 200 Bq/m³.
Radon varies from house to house in Morgan Creek, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Morgan Creek
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Morgan Creek; Alert Ready carries the urgent ones to phones, radio and TV.
| Alert | What it means |
|---|---|
| Warning | Severe weather is happening or about to: act now. |
| Watch | Conditions favour severe weather: be ready. |
| Advisory | Weather that is less severe but could disrupt the day. |
| Special weather statement | Unusual weather worth knowing about. |
| Special air quality statement | Poor air, often wildfire smoke. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Morgan Creek come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Morgan Creek’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Morgan Creek | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Anderson Walk 4,210 · 0.8 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| South Surrey 6,431 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Sunnyside 16,784 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Grandview 16,947 · 3.3 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Semiahmoo Town Centre 13,381 · 3.7 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| White Rock 25,057 · 4.6 km | Low | $0.60 | 0% | Yes |
Anderson Walk burns a little more than Morgan Creek, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Morgan Creek faces
Practical steps for Morgan Creek’s hazards, most pressing first.
- Test for three months in winter.
- Over 200 Bq/m³: fix it.
- Kits are cheap; pros test too.
- Never drive through floodwater.
- Move papers and medicines upstairs.
- Ask whether your street is mapped.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Morgan Creek takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Morgan Creek’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Morgan Creek, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Morgan Creek.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Morgan Creek
Is radon a problem in Morgan Creek?
The area’s survey found 0% of 70 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Morgan Creek.
How big is the earthquake risk in Morgan Creek?
Expected earthquake damage in Morgan Creek comes to $0.47 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Morgan Creek at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Morgan Creek’s low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2016) is short of the level that counts.
How is Morgan Creek’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Morgan Creek grades B for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Morgan Creek flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Morgan Creek; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Seismic risk: Natural Resources Canada. Radon: Health Canada. Wildfire: Canadian Wildland Fire Information System. Flood studies: Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.
Sources: NRCan, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model 2022 · Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes · CWFIS, National Burned Area Composite and FBP fuel types · NRCan, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).