The top 10 natural disasters in Canada:

Canada’s most expensive natural disasters
(over half of disasters in Canada are weather related)

1, 2001–02 Drought (British Columbia, Prairies, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia): preliminary estimate, $5 billion
2. 1998 Ice storm (Ontario and Quebec): $4.2 billion
3. 1979–80 Drought (Prairies): $2.5 billion
4. 1988 Drought (Prairies): $1.8 billion
5. 1984 Drought (Prairies): $1 billion
6. 1996 Flood (Saguenay, Quebec): $1 billion

Factors that make Canadians vulnerable

- population growth (+24 per cent between 1980 and 1998);
- urbanization;
- environmental degradation;
- urban sprawl in hazard-prone areas;
- loss of community memory about hazardous events due to increased mobility;
- an aging population (the number of Canadians over age 65 will increase to 1 in 5 by 2026, up from 1 in 20 in 1921);
- an aging infrastructure, unable to cope with environmental loads;
- greater reliance on power, water, transportation, and communication systems; and
- historical over-reliance on technological solutions.

Factors that make Canadians less vulnerable

- better warning and emergency-response systems;
- greater economic capacity;
- well-established government disaster-assistance programs and private insurance companies;
- better government policies;
- community initiatives;
- advances in science and engineering; and
- major risk-reduction programs, such as the Red River Floodway.

The 1998 Ice Storm

What made the ice storm so unusual, though, was that it went on for so long. On average, Ottawa and Montreal receive freezing precipitation on 12 to 17 days a year. Each episode generally lasts for only a few hours at a time, for an annual average total between 45 to 65 hours. During Ice Storm’98, it did not rain continuously, however, the number of hours of freezing rain and drizzle was in excess of 80 - again nearly double the normal annual total.

Unlucky too! The storm brutalized one of the largest populated and urbanized areas of North America leaving more than four million people freezing in the dark for hours, if not, days. Without question, the storm directly affected more people than any previous weather event in Canadian history. Into the third week following the onset of the storm, more than 700,000 were still without electricity. Had the storm tracked 100 km farther east or west of its main target, the disruptive effect would have been far less crippling.

How the storm affected Canadians:

- at least 25 deaths, many from hypothermia.

- exceptional strain on hospitals and personnel

- about 900,000 households without power in Quebec; 100,000 in Ontario.

- about 100,000 people took refuge in shelters

- residents were urged to boil water for 24 to 48 hours.

- airlines and railway discouraged travel into the area

- 14,000 troops (including 2,300 reservists) deployed to help with clean up, evacuation and security.

- millions of residents forced into mobile living, visiting family to shower and share a meal or moving in temporarily with a friend or into a shelter.

- psychological problems, ptsd treatment needed for many

- prolonged freezing rain brought down millions of trees, 120,000 km of power lines and telephone cables, 130 major transmission towers each worth $100,000 and about 30,000 wooden utility poles costing $3000 each.

- The damage in eastern Ontario and southern Quebec was so severe that major rebuilding, not repairing, of the electrical grid had to be undertaken. What it took human beings a half century to construct took nature a matter of hours to knock down.

- Farmers were especially hard hit. Dairy and hog farmers were left without power, frantically sharing generators to run milking machines and to care for new-born piglets. Many Quebec maple syrup producers, who account for 70% of the world supply, were ruined with much of their sugar bush permanently destroyed.

via Environment Canada

The Nicolet Commission Report identified a series of failures from the natural event.

- a natural disaster turned into a technological disaster
- the technological disaster turned into a collapse of essential infrastructures
(telecommunications, transportation, the banking and financial system, drinking-water supplies and, of course, energy infrastructures)

A summary of the unfolding events in 1998 can be found here.

Be Prepared, Not Scared - Self help guide for Canadians by Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada