Flooding In Canada
What is Where?
Canada isn’t one of the most common places for flooding to take place but, lately flooding has been occurring more frequently because of the unsteady climate and weather patterns. Flooding is a very dangerous event. Flooding can happen anywhere at any time and sometimes you don't have time to prepare, by the time there are warnings it can be too late. Most floods in Canada occur on the west and east coast, however floods can occur from snow melt, heavy precipitation, excessive runoff, earthquakes, global warming and climate change (Burton). The high peak season for floods in Canada is in the spring, the reason being, after the winter months there is lots of snow and ice building up in certain areas. For
…show more content…
One factor of flooding in Canada is the heavy precipitation. On average during the month of May, various places receive about 75 millimeters. However, this year some places have gotten up to 200 millimeters of rain which has caused major floods since this amount is higher than normal (Gajewski). In Southern Quebec, Eastern Ontario and Western New Brunswick the forecasters were indicating rainfall from 70 to 100 millimeters which is “a month's worth of rain in 24 hours” (Tang). Ontario and Quebec's accumulation of rainfall was double than the normal amount of rain they usually get. The amounts of rainfall in Quebec caused some major rivers to rise about 10 centimeters in one night (Tang). Quebec has large waterways like the Gatineau and the Saint Lawrence rivers and, when they receive a very high amount of rainfall they will overflow. Since rivers flow down stream, they will flood regions in Quebec and Eastern Ontario. When streams and rivers rise because of the spring ice and snow melt they flood and the ground becomes saturated with water (Tang). Because the ground is already drenched with water it can’t absorb anymore water. When there are tremendous amounts of rainfall, the soil cannot dry up which causes the ground to be extremely wet (Gajewski). As rain storms move across areas in Canada they normally move fast, but lately they have been …show more content…
One of the biggest issues and concerns about flooding is the destruction and associated costs to fix the damage. In the spring flood of 2017 Quebec and Eastern Ontario were decimated and more than $223 million in insured damage as reported by the Insurance Bureau of Canada (Micnnis). Flooding can create destruction to our economy, and cause problems to main roads, highways, and bridges because they are submerged in water. If people need a way to evacuate quickly, they must leave at a reasonable time with a fairly large warning. If they cannot leave early they may be trapped because transportation is disturbed and exits are underwater. Not only the Roads will be damaged but, the rest of the infrastructure will have interruptions from flooding. For example power lines can fall and people won’t have any electricity which is very costly to repair. Companies will have a hard time getting back on their feet since they will lose product and work spaces due to water damage. Flooding will ruin both the interior and exterior of a building. An abundance of repairs will be required so there is a great deal of legal costs related with lawsuits and insurance companies become are very overwhelmed with claims (Mega secur). Flooding will affect our economy because citizens and governments will send money to aid everyone who has suffered financially
Case study: the flooding that occurred in Minden Hills in the spring of 2013, flooded the downtown core. The picturesque cottage town has the Gull River flowing through it. The river overflowed in April because of many reasons: a couple of days of rain, the third largest amount in over a century, but it also happened because the frost in the ground stopped the water from going into the Earth, the lakes and rivers being full from the spring thaw, and the rapid
A major flood on any river is both a long-term and a short-term event, particularly any river basin where human influence has exerted "control" over the ri...
Due to the changing climate and rising sea levels, Morro Bay is prone to flooding. According to City of Morro Bay (n.d.), the greatest damage occurred during the 1969 storm. The floods caused substantial damage to telephone, electric and gas lines, water wells and bridges. The total damage caused by 1969 storm related flooding was $1,476 million (Alluvial Fan Task Force, n.d.). The 1969 flooding was blamed at poor drainage systems. Currently, Morro Bay has taken steps to maintain, repair and evaluate drainage systems within the community to prevent damage caused by flooding. The city of Morro Bay has employed flood control program which maintains all storm drain facilities and creeks on public property and manages emergency response during heavy
Already scientists have observed that more than 75% of the recent economic losses are caused by natural hazards which can be attributed to wind storms, floods, droughts and other climate related hazards. In the year 2008, the U.S. state of Iowa was on the front pages of newspapers all around the world. Weeks of heavy rain in the Midwest caused rivers to swell and levees to break. Millions of acres of farmland are now underwater, their plantings most likely destroyed. By March, Iowa had tied its third-highest monthly snowfall in 121 years of record keeping, and then came the rain. April’s st...
The Midwestern United States has experienced flooding for a long time now, but recently the annual precipitation has been far greater than before. Precipitation has increased 37 percent since 1958 (Jeff Spross). However a few major floods have been recorded dating back to 1913. In 1913 torrential rainfall hit Indiana and Ohio. The ground was greatly damaged from the flood causing difficult agricultural years for many years after the flood. Another flood hit a large portion of the Midwest region including the eastern Dakotas, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Indiana in 1993. Recovery costs for the Great Flood exceeded $4.2 billion. Like the flood in 1913 agriculture was affected for many years hurting the economy of the Midwest. A more recent disastrous flood hit mainly Iowa in 2008. After the flood in 2008 agriculture again took a hard hit and since the government ...
Water is easily available to Canadians. According to Report Newsmagazine, Canada possesses 20% of the world’s Fresh Water. Report also states that Canada possesses only 0.5% of the world’s population. This means that on a per capita basis, Canada has more water than any other nation. Furthermore, water is a renewable resource, which means that once it is used, it may be used again after the water cycle. Many other materials Canada sells to the United States are not renewable. Dennis Owens, the senior Frontier Centre analyst says, “Here we are giving non-renewable oil and gas to the U.S., then water falls from the sky and goes into the ocean and we won’t give it to them.” In Newfoundland, Gisbourne Lake has the potential to drain 500,000 cubic meters of water per week. This drainage would only lower the level of the lake one inch and this would naturally be replenished within ten hours. Canada has cut down trees that will take 100 years to grow back and sold them. S...
Currently, over half of the world’s population lives in urban based areas (Owrangi et al, 2014), and this increase in population is expected to contribute to further increases in flood risks (ibid). Vancouver has achieved rapid socioeconomic development due to the increased employment opportunities and growth rates, directly stressing local natural resources by increasing population and urbanization (Owrangi et al, 2014).
In August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, leaving its signature of destruction form Louisiana all the way to Florida. The hardest hit area and the greatest catastrophe was in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. For many years the people of New Orleans had feared that one day a hurricane would drown their city with its storm surge. Katrina brought that nightmare storm surge and flooded the city. Yet the New Orleans levees system and flood control was the major cause of flooding, due to the inadequate repair and maintenance failure, incompletion of the levee system, and engineering designs based on outdated scientific data.
Chapter 2: Canada’s Physical Base emphasizes reasoning for which its physical geography attributes to its regional geography, along with the population distribution and developing core regions. This chapter outlines main geological structure, landforms, climate, and impact on human a...
The Cumberland and Cumberland River basin experienced a 36 hour rainfall that produced flooding in Nashville and its greater area (After Action Report, II). The 2010 two day storm was believed to be greater than a 100 year event. Storm activity began on May 1st and 2nd which created a large scale flash flood along the Cumberland and Lower Tennessee rivers, and within its tributaries. Historically the Cumberland River basin has received great amounts of precipitation and has experienced extreme rainfall before, making it prone to severe flooding (After Action Report, I). Some of the historic floods that have affected the Cumberland River are the December 1926, January 1927, January 1937 and March 1975 floods, which produced a maximum flood height in much of the river. Before the May 2010 flood, the Cumberland River reached a flood stage of 45.26 feet during the May 1987 flood which was a result of a series of flooding events that took place during an extensive amount of time (After Action Report, 4). The 2010 flood which affected much of Nashville acted more like a flash flood, which produced record breaking rainfall for much of the area. According to the Quantitative Precipitation Forecast (QPF) on April 30th rainfall totaled 7.8 inches across central Tennessee. The report also states that there was a widespread of rainfall equaling to 2 to 6 inch in total, over southeastern US stretching to Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Rainfall for parts of western Tennessee and Kentucky totaled 3 to 4 inches with a high of 4.65 inches (After Action Report, III). As it is stated by the report areas around Nashville received more than 13 inches of rain in a span of 36 hours, which doubled the record set by the September 1979 flood event. At th...
New Orleans flooding risks originated from its location characteristics in proximity of Mississippi River. Since its foundation up to 1927, New Orleans water and flooding threats originated from Mississippi River but human activities had contained this by 1930s. Regrettably, this led to additional water problems. Accordingly, the critical changes to the New Orleans environment originating from the human development worsened the water problems in area caused by the floods. In particular, the growth in ...
Residents in Canada should attempt to reduce water usage. After water is stored, piped, measured, calibrated, purified and delivered, we then proceed to flush 40% of it down the drain according to L. Pollack. All of these steps use energy, which contributes to global warming, further leading to evaporation. One way is to increase the use of rain barrels to water lawns and gardens.
The industrialization of Canada is severely affecting the nations lakes, streams, and rivers. If something is not done to improve the situation it is going to have some severe environmental problems in its future. The following essay will be looking at the factors that cause pollution, and the effect that pollution has on the environment of Canada. It will also explore some of the methods used to treat and clean-up wastewater, and oil spills.
The damage caused by the disasters will not only kill people, damage infrastructure, but it will also create a problem with climate refugees. These refugees will be displaced due to the events, destroying their home or sea levels making it unusable. Without a home, the displaced citizen would have to find a new home. If they are unable to do so, the country will need to supply a temporary home for those
Flooding has always been part of the natural environment of Thailand. Since historical times populations that live within the urban and rural floodplains have learned of ways to adapt and survive (Balancing 2). With the economic development of many areas within the floodplain regions over the later part of the last century many areas have become further susceptible to seasonal rains and flooding.