Photo: Patricia · CC BY-SA 3.0Wildfire low, radon 0%: how Pond Inlet stands on hazards
Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.15 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Pond Inlet can’t get a Hazard risk grade: it lies north of the fuel map, so its wildfire risk can’t be measured. Hazard risk gives Pond Inlet a grade of B+; wildfire isn’t measured here.
What stands out about Pond Inlet’s hazards
For Pond Inlet, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Pond Inlet faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Pond Inlet grades B+ for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Pond Inlet’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 78 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough.
No wildfire figure for Pond Inlet
Pond Inlet lies north of the national fuel map, so its wildfire risk isn’t measured, and Risk can’t be graded without it.
No flood study is listed for Pond Inlet
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Pond Inlet: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The inventory has nothing for Pond Inlet, but a local or conservation-authority map may still exist.
Towns with a flood study on file
No inventory study touches Pond Inlet, where 58% of Canadian towns have one.
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 Pond Inlet 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.”
Shaking is Pond Inlet’s costliest hazard: $0.15 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Roughly 5 times the typical $0.030: Pond Inlet’s $0.15 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
With too few towns in Nunavut for a median of their own, Pond Inlet is set beside Canada’s: $0.15 against $0.030.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Pond Inlet sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 19% are 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 Pond Inlet.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
0% of homes tested around Pond Inlet are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Nunavut health region
Pond Inlet’s survey area reads 0% over the guideline, under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
There is no median in Nunavut to compare with: the territory has too few towns, so Pond Inlet’s 0% stands beside Canada’s figure.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Under 5% puts Pond Inlet 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.
A low area share in Pond Inlet doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Pond Inlet
Alerts for Pond Inlet 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 Pond Inlet 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)
Get ready for what Pond Inlet faces
Practical steps for Pond Inlet’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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- How close is the forest edge?
- 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, Pond Inlet takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- 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 Pond Inlet.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Pond Inlet’s included.
- 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 Pond Inlet.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Pond Inlet
How big is the earthquake risk in Pond Inlet?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Pond Inlet $0.15 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Pond Inlet’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Pond Inlet grades B+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Pond Inlet flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Pond Inlet, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
Is radon a problem in Pond Inlet?
The area’s survey found 0% of 78 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Pond Inlet.
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).