Photo: Mosbo6 · CC BY-SA 4.0Whitewater Region is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by MRC de Pontiac
For Whitewater Region, wildfire history is close to nil: 0% of nearby land since 1986, 0.001% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.11 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. In Health Canada’s survey, 8% of homes tested in Whitewater Region’s area exceeded 200 Bq/m³, close to the typical 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Whitewater Region a grade of C+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Whitewater Region’s hazards
For Whitewater Region, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Whitewater Region faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Whitewater Region grades C+ for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Whitewater Region’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #814 of 866 in Ontario and #2,034 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Whitewater Region: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Whitewater Region’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Low: the land around Whitewater Region burns at 0.001% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Fire has stayed at least 5.9 km from Whitewater Region’s homes since 1986.
There is forest near Whitewater Region’s homes (13% within 5 km) and more of it further out (25% 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 Ontario · highest of 871
In the top quarter in Ontario: Whitewater Region ranks 83rd of 871 at 0.001% a year, with Sioux Lookout first at 0.16%.
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 Whitewater Region, 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.
MRC de Pontiac has mapped flooding for Whitewater Region (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Whitewater Region: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
A 2006 study by MRC de Pontiac covers Whitewater Region, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chenal-du-Grand-Calumet-Rocher-Fendu | MRC de Pontiac | 2006 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Whitewater Region with 69% of towns in Ontario; Canada’s share is 58%.
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 Whitewater Region’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.
High seismic risk in Whitewater Region: $0.11 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Roughly 3.7 times the typical $0.030: Whitewater Region’s $0.11 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Whitewater Region’s $0.11 tops the median in Ontario, $0.043, though Alexandria reaches $0.21.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
More earthquake risk than most: only 25% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Whitewater Region.
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 Whitewater Region.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
8% of homes tested around Whitewater Region are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Renfrew County and District Health Unit
8% of tested homes around Whitewater Region were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Whitewater Region, 8% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 1% over 600, against a median of 4% in Ontario.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share Whitewater Region’s band of 5 to 10%; 26% sit higher.
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, Whitewater Region’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Whitewater Region
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Whitewater Region; 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 Whitewater Region 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 Whitewater Region’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whitewater Region | Low | $0.11 | 8% | Yes |
| Fort-Coulonge 1,293 · 15 km | Low | $0.13 | 13% | Yes |
| Mansfield-et-Pontefract 2,332 · 17 km | Low | $0.087 | 13% | Yes |
Fort-Coulonge burns a little more than Whitewater Region, 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 Whitewater Region faces
Practical steps for Whitewater Region’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
- Wildfire counts one way. For Whitewater Region, 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. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Whitewater Region.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Whitewater Region’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Whitewater Region is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Whitewater Region
How big is the earthquake risk in Whitewater Region?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Whitewater Region’s buildings lose $0.11 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
How is Whitewater Region’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Whitewater Region C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Whitewater Region at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Whitewater Region’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2016) is short of the level that counts.
Is radon a problem in Whitewater Region?
The area’s survey found 8% of 100 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Whitewater Region.
Does Whitewater Region flood?
There is flood mapping for Whitewater Region on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
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).