These are the biggest natural disasters that threaten Calgary
The Calgary Emergency Management Agency has released its disaster preparedness report, and natural disasters are the main threat to Calgary.
Of the 16 concerns CEMA listed as the biggest threats to Calgary, nine occur in nature.
Three are winter issues, with blizzards, extreme cold, and winter storms listed among the high threats.
For severe winter weather, the report says it “could result in a risk to the life safety of citizens, with increased risk for vulnerable populations.” The report also states, “It has significant impacts on the mobility of Calgarians, which can result in cascading economic impacts,” and “critical infrastructure and supply chain disruptions may also result from these events.”
During the summer, there are concerns about flooding of both the Bow River and Elbow River, along with heavy rainfall, tornados, and hydrological drought.
Flooding is a concern as we approach the 10th anniversary of the flood in Calgary. The report says that the problem gets worse with the changing climate.
To mitigate this, the report states, “The City has committed over $150 million to various flood mitigation and resilience projects throughout Calgary. Once current and planned flood mitigation projects are complete, the entire city will be protected up to a 1:200-year flood event.”
They add, “The City also invested $83 million to enhance flood handling, water supply, and dam safety resilience.”
They also list “pandemic” as a high risk to Calgary.
CEMA
The non-nature threats are critical infrastructure failure, dam breaches for the Bow and Elbow River, rail incidents, civil disobedience, hostage incident, and mass casualty attack.
CEMA also lists 49 concerns as medium, low, and very low.
CEMA
In the report, CEMA says, “Risk understanding informs our planning, operations, and work with the community, as well as the prevention and mitigation efforts of our Agency members.”
They say there is a series of instructions to deal with each of the highest-risk disasters, with different triggers and thresholds set to determine what needs to be done to respond.
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