Photo: Studio Livernois · Public domainCacouna faces more hazards than 94% of Canadian towns
Burn scars are few around Cacouna, with 0.2% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.006% a year). Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.21 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. In Health Canada’s survey, 14% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Cacouna a grade of D, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Cacouna’s hazards
For Cacouna, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Cacouna faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Cacouna grades D for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Cacouna, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
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 Cacouna has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.2% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Cacouna’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Cacouna’s 0.006% is in the low band.
Cacouna’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 7.9 km away.
Forest thickens with distance from Cacouna: 25% of the land within 5 km, 49% 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 Quebec · highest of 514
At 0.006% a year, Cacouna is near the top in Quebec: 27th of 514, behind Mistissini (0.31%).
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 takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Cacouna among them, though its rate is above zero; 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Cacouna
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Cacouna: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The inventory has nothing for Cacouna, but a local or conservation-authority map may still exist.
Towns with a flood study on file
No study touches Cacouna; in Quebec, 45% of towns have one, below Canada’s 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Cacouna.
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 Cacouna’s costliest hazard: $0.21 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Cacouna loses $0.21, 7.1 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.21, Cacouna is above the typical town in Quebec ($0.14); La Pocatière has the most at $0.48.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Cacouna is in the top tenth of Canada’s 2,611 towns for earthquake risk; 7.7% 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 Cacouna.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs high around Cacouna: 14% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · The radon tests numbers here cover the Bas-Saint-Laurent health region
the typical Canadian town has 6.6% over the guideline; Cacouna’s area has 14%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Cacouna, 14% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 1.8% over 600, against a median of 8.2% in Quebec.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
One test in ten or more tops the guideline around Cacouna, as in 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 4.6% go 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.
Whatever Cacouna’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Cacouna
Alerts for Cacouna 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 Cacouna 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)
How Cacouna’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cacouna | Low | $0.21 | 14% | None listed |
| Saint-Arsène 1,269 · 6.1 km | Low | $0.19 | 14% | None listed |
| Rivière-du-Loup 20,650 · 8.8 km | Low | $0.28 | 14% | None listed |
| Saint-Modeste 1,182 · 14 km | Low | $0.20 | 14% | None listed |
| Saint-Antonin 4,633 · 15 km | Low | $0.24 | 14% | Yes |
| L'Isle-Verte 1,427 · 17 km | Low | $0.15 | 14% | None listed |
| Notre-Dame-du-Portage 1,341 · 18 km | Low | $0.27 | 14% | None listed |
Cacouna’s low band tops its neighbours; Saint-Arsène is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Cacouna faces
What to do about the hazards Cacouna faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- 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.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
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, Cacouna’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 Cacouna 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 Cacouna.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Cacouna without grading them.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Cacouna
Is radon a problem in Cacouna?
Around Cacouna, 171 survey homes were tested and 14% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Does Cacouna flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Cacouna’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
Is Cacouna at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.2% of the land around Cacouna since 1986 (last in 2018); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Cacouna?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Cacouna’s buildings lose $0.21 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
How is Cacouna’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Cacouna’s Hazard risk grade is D, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
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).