Photo: Gabriel Picard · CC BY-SA 4.0On hazards, Saint-Modeste comes out behind 94% of Canadian towns
Wildfire is rare near Saint-Modeste: 0.2% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.004% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.20 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. More homes than usual carry radon here, 14% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Saint-Modeste a grade of D, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Saint-Modeste’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Saint-Modeste: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Saint-Modeste faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Saint-Modeste: D
The grade weighs Saint-Modeste’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Saint-Modeste: 0.2% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 2.2% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Modeste’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.004% of the land around Saint-Modeste each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
About as much forest grows next to Saint-Modeste’s homes (53% within 5 km) as across 25 km (54%).
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
The land around Saint-Modeste burns at 0.004% a year, the 29th highest rate of 514 towns in Quebec; Mistissini tops it at 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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Saint-Modeste burns, but slower than in the 7.5% 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.
No flood study is listed for Saint-Modeste
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Modeste, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
An empty entry for Saint-Modeste on the inventory isn’t proof of safety; ask locally for flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, below the 58% across Canada, and not Saint-Modeste.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Saint-Modeste to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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 Saint-Modeste $0.20 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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Saint-Modeste loses $0.20, 6.6 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Quebec expects $0.14 a year; Saint-Modeste expects $0.20, and La Pocatière $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.
Saint-Modeste sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 12% 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).
The loss is to Saint-Modeste’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
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 Saint-Modeste: 14% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · The radon tests numbers here cover the Bas-Saint-Laurent health region
A higher share than most: 14% of tested homes around Saint-Modeste, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Saint-Modeste (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.
The 10–20% band holds 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, Saint-Modeste among them; 4.6% rank above.
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.
One home in Saint-Modeste can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Saint-Modeste
Alerts for Saint-Modeste 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 Saint-Modeste 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 Saint-Modeste’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Modeste | Low | $0.20 | 14% | None listed |
| Saint-Antonin 4,633 · 7.0 km | Low | $0.24 | 14% | Yes |
| Rivière-du-Loup 20,650 · 11 km | Low | $0.28 | 14% | None listed |
| Saint-Arsène 1,269 · 14 km | Low | $0.19 | 14% | None listed |
| Cacouna 1,888 · 14 km | Low | $0.21 | 14% | None listed |
| Notre-Dame-du-Portage 1,341 · 16 km | Low | $0.27 | 14% | None listed |
| Saint-Hubert-de-Rivière-du-Loup 1,471 · 17 km | Low | $0.12 | 14% | None listed |
The fire record around Cacouna is a touch heavier than Saint-Modeste’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 Saint-Modeste faces
What to do about the hazards Saint-Modeste 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
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Saint-Modeste is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Saint-Modeste’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- 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 Saint-Modeste.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Saint-Modeste’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Modeste
Does Saint-Modeste flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Saint-Modeste’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
How is Saint-Modeste’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Saint-Modeste D, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Modeste?
Around Saint-Modeste, 171 survey homes were tested and 14% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Modeste?
Expected earthquake damage in Saint-Modeste comes to $0.20 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Saint-Modeste at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.2% of the land around Saint-Modeste since 1986 (last in 2018); 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).