Photo: Bouchecl · CC BY-SA 3.0On hazards, La Pocatière comes out behind 94% of Canadian towns
Fire seldom reaches La Pocatière: since 1986, 0.3% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.008% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.48 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, 14% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives La Pocatière a grade of D, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about La Pocatière’s hazards
For La Pocatière, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What La Pocatière faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in La Pocatière: D
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like La Pocatière with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #505 of 507 in Quebec and #2,532 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.
Wildfire is rare near La Pocatière: 0.3% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around La Pocatière’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.008% of the land a year around La Pocatière, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Fire has stayed at least 9.5 km from La Pocatière’s homes since 1986.
Within 5 km of La Pocatière, 13% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 58%.
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 513
La Pocatière ranks 21st of the 513 towns in Quebec for burn rate, at 0.008% a year; Mistissini leads with 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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; La Pocatière stays low, with 92%.
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.
No flood study is listed for La Pocatière
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for La Pocatière: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches La Pocatière, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%, and La Pocatière is not among them.
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 La Pocatière.
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 La Pocatière’s costliest hazard: $0.48 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; La Pocatière loses $0.48, 16 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
La Pocatière has the highest shaking-damage figure in Quebec, $0.48 a year per $1,000; the median is $0.14.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Only 1.5% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than La Pocatière.
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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in La Pocatière is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Test for radon in La Pocatière: 14% of area homes were over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Bas-Saint-Laurent health region
La Pocatière’s area, at 14%, is above the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, so testing is worth more here than most places.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around La Pocatière (14%) than in the typical town in Quebec (8.2%); 1.8% went over 600.
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 La Pocatière, 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.
Radon varies from house to house in La Pocatière, 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 La Pocatière
Alerts for La Pocatière 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near La Pocatière are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around La Pocatière
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| La Pocatière | Low | $0.48 | 14% | None listed |
| Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière 1,635 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.34 | 14% | None listed |
| Saint-Pacôme 1,540 · 7.7 km | Low | $0.30 | 14% | Yes |
| Rivière-Ouelle 1,014 · 10 km | Low | $0.48 | 14% | Yes |
| Mont-Carmel 1,191 · 16 km | Low | $0.25 | 14% | None listed |
Nowhere around La Pocatière burns more: Saint-Pacôme, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what La Pocatière faces
What to do about the hazards La Pocatière 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
- 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 La Pocatière.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, La Pocatière takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. For La Pocatière, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for La Pocatière’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in La Pocatière
How big is the earthquake risk in La Pocatière?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in La Pocatière $0.48 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Does La Pocatière flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, La Pocatière’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
How is La Pocatière’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
La Pocatière’s Hazard risk grade is D, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in La Pocatière?
Around La Pocatière, 171 survey homes were tested and 14% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is La Pocatière at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.3% of the land around La Pocatière since 1986 (last in 2024); at low, it neither helps nor hurts 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).