Photo: Haydn Blackey · CC BY-SA 2.0Pouch Cove faces fewer hazards than 94% of Canadian towns
Around Pouch Cove, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk runs low: $0.010 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 4% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Pouch Cove grades A for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Pouch Cove’s hazards
For Pouch Cove, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Pouch Cove faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Pouch Cove grades A for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Pouch Cove’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Pouch Cove has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Pouch Cove’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
A burn rate of 0.000% a year keeps Pouch Cove in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
The ring nearest Pouch Cove is the most wooded: 88% forest fuel within 5 km against 65% within 25 km.
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 Newfoundland and Labrador · highest of 33
Little or nothing burns around Pouch Cove in a typical year; 8 of the 33 towns in Newfoundland and Labrador share that, and Labrador City leads at 0.43%.
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.
The low band holds 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, and Pouch Cove sits at its very bottom; only 7.5% are above it.
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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Pouch Cove
Flood studies whose area touches Pouch Cove, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Pouch Cove, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Newfoundland and Labrador reaches 59% of towns, beside 58% across Canada, but not Pouch Cove.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Pouch Cove floods.
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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Pouch Cove just $0.010 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Pouch Cove it is only $0.010, 0.3 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk around Pouch Cove ($0.010) matches the middle in Newfoundland and Labrador ($0.011), far from Holyrood’s $0.015.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Most of Canada’s 2,611 towns (86%) face more earthquake damage than Pouch Cove.
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).
For Pouch Cove the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs low around Pouch Cove: 4% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Pouch Cove’s area has fewer, 4%. Pouch Cove doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Eastern Regional Integrated Health Authority.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Pouch Cove’s area, at 4%, is close to the median in Newfoundland and Labrador (4%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Under 5% puts Pouch Cove 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Pouch Cove’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Pouch Cove
Alerts for Pouch Cove come from Environment and Climate Change Canada and, for emergencies, Alert Ready.
| 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. |
Evacuation orders for Pouch Cove come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Pouch Cove
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pouch Cove | Low | $0.010 | 4% | None listed |
| Flatrock 1,938 · 6.4 km | Low | $0.009 | 4% | None listed |
| Torbay 8,297 · 12 km | Low | $0.011 | 4% | Yes |
| Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove 2,601 · 15 km | Low | $0.013 | 4% | Yes |
| Portugal Cove-St. Philip's 9,167 · 18 km | Low | $0.013 | 4% | Yes |
| Wabana 2,008 · 19 km | Low | $0.011 | 4% | None listed |
The fire record around Wabana is a touch heavier than Pouch Cove’s, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Pouch Cove faces
Practical steps for Pouch Cove’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.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Pouch Cove’s included.
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Pouch Cove until then.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Pouch Cove.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Pouch Cove without grading them.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Pouch Cove
How is Pouch Cove’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Pouch Cove grades A for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Pouch Cove?
Expected earthquake damage in Pouch Cove comes to $0.010 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Pouch Cove flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Pouch Cove, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
Is radon a problem in Pouch Cove?
The area’s survey found 4% of 100 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Pouch Cove.
Is Pouch Cove at risk of wildfire?
Very little by the national record: Pouch Cove’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, so wildfire doesn’t change its 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).