Here are some interesting facts and figures about emergencies and events in Canada’s past.
u Eighty-five per cent of Canadians agree having an emergency plan is important in ensuring their and their family’s safety, yet only 40 per cent have prepared one.
u Roughly 5,000 earthquakes are recorded in Canada every year.
u Hurricanes are bigger and cause more widespread damage than tornadoes (a very large system can be up to 1,000 kilometres wide).
u Canada gets more tornadoes than any other country except the U.S., averaging about 50 tornadoes per year.
u In 2011, flooding in Manitoba and Saskatchewan featured the highest water levels and flows in modern history. More than 11,000 residents were displaced from their homes.
u The June 23, 2010, earthquake in Val-des-Bois, Que., produced the strongest shaking ever experienced in Ottawa and was felt as far away as Kentucky in the U.S.
u In 2009, Manitoba’s Red River recorded its second highest spring flooding in nearly 100 years. Nearly 3,000 people were evacuated from their homes.
u In 2007, the Prairies experienced 410 severe weather events including tornadoes, heavy rain, wind and hail, nearly double the yearly average of 221 events.
u One of the most destructive and disruptive storms in Canadian history was the 1998 ice storm in Eastern Canada causing hardship for four million people and costing $3 billion. Power outages lasted up to four weeks.
u The largest landslide in Canada involved 185 million cubic metres of material and created a 40-metre deep scar that covered the size of 80 city blocks in 1894 at Saint-Alban, Que.
u The coldest temperature in North America was – 63 C, recorded in 1947 in Snag, Yukon.
u The deadliest heat wave in Canadian history produced temperatures exceeding 44 C in Manitoba and Ontario in 1936. Rail lines and bridge girders twisted, sidewalks buckled, crops wilted and fruit baked on trees.
u Ice, branches or power lines can continue to break and fall for several hours after the end of an ice storm.
u Some hailstones are the size of peas while others can be as big as grapefruit.