This page is intended to provide those looking for information with reliable and credible sources of information. Reliable information is described as providing good guidance more often than not. Credible information is described as coming from sources where we can expect that they know what they’re talking about. These two criteria are drawn from an old intelligence source vetting approach.
To be fair, there’s a bit of a bias towards the East Coast / Maritimes below (living there, I’m biased). I am currently updating the site slowly with a more national view, but it will take a time. For the mean time, the nationally-scoped pages will take you to different regions to at least give some coverage.
If looking for alerts and warning information, these will be posted on the main page as either WATCH or WARNING posts.
Government
If you are looking at the area and are wondering what kinds of things have happened in the past, the provides a view of this. That being said, check the criteria is used for entry into the system as it’s a good start point but there’s a lot more that happens that just the declared disasters.
| Historical Data | |
| Canadian Disaster Database | This provides historical information regarding declared disasters. Note that only declared disasters are captured in this database. You will need to do additional research to get the full picture in your area. |
| General Guidance | |
| “Get Prepared” | Good general guidance. For those living in coastal communities, a three day pack is a bit optimistic for heavier disasters, You may want to look at about a week. Note also that evacuations due to wildfires can be several weeks. |
| City of Halifax | This is the Emergency Preparedness site for the City of Halifax. |
| plan outline available online | For those that need a starting point and want to have a written plan, one can be found here. |
| guidance on emergency kits. | This is from the Ready.gov webspace (USA). Look at this as a good starting point. Each province and territory also has guidance on these things. Remember that your emergency kit has to have the basics but also has to support you in your specific region and under the conditions that you will experience. Finally, if you think you need something extra on top of the basics, common sense would be to pack it (your own best judgment applies here). |
You can find information on the Voluntary Vulnerable Persons Registry in the Halifax are here.
Government Emergency Management Offices
These offices are listed with Canada first then with the provinces and territories being (roughly) put in order from (E to W) and territories across the bottom. If setting up a home, it is strongly recommended that you at least link to any municipal (or regional) sites as well as the applicable provincial / territorial one.
Specialized Official Sources
| Government of Canada / ECCC | |
| Government of Canada Strategy | A collaborative document that was drafted in consultation with the various provinces. |
| ECCC Canadian Center for Climate Services Landing Page | General landing page |
| GoC Library of Climate Resources | Links to various datasets and tools. |
| GoC Climate Data Portals | Suite of data portals |
| GoC Climate Services Support Desk (GoC) | When attempting to locate climate related data held by the GoC. |
Firesmart Nova Scotia provides guidance and tools on how to look at threats posed by wildfires and the like. I’ve included the landing page here but you may want to look at their home risk assessment and other guidance.
Hazard Maps
These maps are from official sources and project details and past, present, or future disasters based on geography.
| Name and Link | Description |
| Hurricanes | |
| NOAA | One of the better sources given how it covers the oceans. This site will track into Canadian waters but is also highly useful because it gives an extra few days of warning. |
| Environment Canada hurricane conditions web page | This will give more granular detail regarding storms near to Canada. Generally, consider using the NOAA until the storm reaches about 3 days away then start referring to both to get more refined details. |
| Tornadoes | |
| Northern Tornadoes Project | This project is run through the University of Western Ontario. You will need to contact them directly to set up an account (their discretion) but they also have Open Data that provides an overview of activity.. |
| Flood Hazards | |
| Floods and River Ice Break Up | Seasonal data but near real time through GoC operations center. This is also included in the “Current Situations” page but is here due to a number of good links. |
| Floodsmart Canada Flood maps | Other maps and links associated with flood plains. |
| River Runner Global | Showing downstream movement of water based on a map location |
| Nova Scotia Coastal Hazard Map | Potential coastal flooding with layers. |
| PEI Coastal Hazards Information Platform | Providing details on potential future flooding. |
| New Brunswick Flood Maps | Generally historical details |
| Newfoundland Flood Risk Mapping | From flood risk mapping studies. |
| Seismic | |
| Simplified Seismic from Natural Resources | General map showing areas of potential seismic risk (earthquakes in Canada) |
| Landslides | |
| Natural Resources Fatal Landslides | This is the Natural Resources (Government of Canada) website that provides information and mapping of fatal landslides in Canada. |
| Wildfire / Forest Fire | |
| Canada Wildfire Information System | This map is as much for current conditions as for setting up longer term programs. This is more of an immediate picture but is useful for planning as well. |
| Canadian National Wild Fire Database | This provides a more historical searchable view of forest fire activity in Canada over a number of decades. |
| Canadian Geographic mapping 100 years of fires | This is much more of a historical view. Combined with the resources above, this can give a reasonable estimate. |
| BC, AB, AB(map), YK, YK(map), NWT, SK,, SK(map), MB, NU, ON, ON(map), PQ, NL, NB, PEI, NS | This links to the provincial wildfire services maps across Canada. |
| Firesmart Canada Program. | Landing page for the Firesmart program |
| General Data Banks | |
| Canadian Disaster Database | Useful in terms of historical research with a national scope. Note that this only covers declared disasters. |
| Canadian Disaster Database in other formats | This includes formats like csv, kml, etc. |
| Canada Natural Hazards | Various hazards available. |
| Canada Seismic Hazards | Static maps presented as graphics. |
| Canada (2024) National Risk Profile | Written report that may help provide broader context around challenges. |
| Government of Canada Climate Related Links | This is really a start point for research but can open a number of doors on topics. |
Infrastructure Around You
This section looks at the infrastructure that delivers services around you. These are not “active conditions” kinds of pages, but rather the more stable maps that show where certain things are.
| Toporama | Natural Resources maps of all topographic maps in Canada. Useful in terms of looking at surrounding heights of land, road networks, etc. |
| Nautical charts | Nautical charts for around the coastline. You may need to “zoom” and “scroll” to get to the right locaton. |
| OpenData – Road Network | Open Data for Canada’s Road Network. This gives the road network without some of the clutter that some find using topographical maps. |
| OpenData – Rail Network | This site presents a compilation of datasets that describe Canada’s rail network. |
| OpenData- Airports | This has a range of datasets (many in CSV format) that can be downloaded to provide details on airports. You will need to do some query-work to get to your specific location. |
| Canadian Cellular Tower Map | This map locates the major service providers’ cell tower networks across Canada. |
| Cell Phone Carrier Coverage Map | Shows what kinds of coverage may be available in the area. Knowing this can give you an idea of reliability and data transmission rates.You will need to work through the different carriers from the drop down list. |
| Energy Infrastructure and Resource Map | Run by natural resources, this includes natural gas processing, refineries, power plants over 100 MW, solar resources, etc. The map is national but can be focused into local areas. |
| International Power Lines Dashboard | This provides some status about the power lines that cross international boundaries, not local service lines. More of a strategic thing. |
| Canada VMap Power Lines | This takes some getting used to but once you figure out how the search function works, is quite detailed. You can also find various provincial power line maps online. |
| Canada Power Outage Map | This website provides an overview of power outages in Canada and appears to be updated pretty frequently. |
| Down Detector | This site provides some information regarding potential disruption to a wide range of services. |
Some Lists, Calculators, or Instructions
These lists should be considered supplemental to the official guidance from sources like the NS Emergency Management Office and other sites. You should not rely on these lists to cover everything you may need (they are written for a broad community) but should use them as a guide and take the time to consider other things that you may need.
| General Checklists | |
| How a basic EM routine might look over the year can be found here. | A general list of vital documents you may want to bring can be found here. |
| A general checklist for preparing for severe storms can be found here. | A general checklist for preparing for flooding can be found here. |
| A general checklist for preparing for wildfires can be found here. | Basic ideas for preventing or dealing with coastal erosion can be found here. |
| The USA guidance for preparing pets for disasters can be found here.Note that Canadian alerts should be used. | Emergency Preparedness for Farm Animals involving a range of Government of Canada departments. |
| Guidance pages or sites | |
| Coastal First Nations – Great Bear Initiative Traditional Knowledge Site | |
| 30-30-30 Rule for wildfires | Province of Nova Scotia landing page for the Basic Forest Fire Suppression Course |
| US Climate Resilience Toolkit for Coastal Erosion | FEMA Protect Your Property from Coastal Erosion |
| Solutions for Shoreline Erosion: A Basic Guide to Bioengineering (Ontario area) | Mattagami Region Conservation Authority: Shoreline Erosion and Stabilization |
| Safeguarding your Coastal Property – Government of Nova Scotia | |
| Calculators and How To Estimate | |
| Calculator for backup fuel here. | Basic tie down point for raised decks here |
| Snow load on roof calculator here. | Tethering a computer through a smart phone here. |
| Estimating wind speed from visual cues can be found here (pdf) or here | Estimating sea state from visual cues can be found here |
| How to Read Clouds for weather_Boat US | How to Read Clouds – Almanac |
Standards
These standards are from outside organizations. A standard should be used as a guide to help you determine if you’ve “covered all the bases.” While tempting, it should not be used as a checklist. One approach is to use the standard to help guide you through the processes for understanding (1) what you want to protect, (2) what you need to protect it from, and (3) what needs to be in place to offer it a reasonable degree of protection. While the process for the standard will help in this respect, make sure that you take a good look at what risks you face.
| ANSI EMAP EMS 5-2022 | This standard focuses on establishing a robust system that falls under a comprehensive emergency management plan (sometimes referred to as a CEMP). While this standard will be difficult for communities to achieve, using it as a guide and being realistic in your expectations will at least give you a good starting point and you can build from there. |
| FEMA 2011 Whole Community Approach | This standard is a bit older (so might be better to start with the one above). What’s important here is the “whole of community” approach and how that can be implemented. |
| Rural Health Information Hub | This is more about how to develop a plan and those sort of things. That being said, it provides a rural perspective (USA) that may help those in coastal communities given that our environment is often closer to rural or “small community” living. |
| PMS936 | The National Wildfire Coordination Group (NWCG) is a USA group that has published a symbology for its common mapping symbols used to fight wildfires. |
Sources of Online Training
These link to sources of online training from reasonably credible sources.
| Course | Description |
| EMI Course Catalogue for Non-Residents | These courses are presented by the USA Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) |
| Province of Nova Scotia Forest Protection Course – Wildfires | Useful in terms of providing general information and awareness of a range of forest protection activities. |
| National Fire Prevention Association – Wildfire Training (online free) | A short number of courses that focus on protecting property against wildfires. |
| Home Flood Protection Program – Online courses | Efforts from the University of Waterloo that include short 1.5 to 5 hour courses on protecting property against flooding. |
| Introduction to Flood Risk and Resilience | This is put together by the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management. |
| Kent Hardware Emergency Preparedness – Hurricanes, Floods | Red Cross Emergency Preparedness page |
Potentially Helpful Videos
We don’t receive any compensation or consideration for these videos. They are simply coming from a reasonable source and provide information that may be useful when dealing with trying to figure out how to deal with certain issues. These are informational only. This section will be updated periodically.
| General Preparedness | |
| Lowe’s Using Sandbags | Maricopa Country video on protecting against flooding |
| Victoria State Emergency Services Using Sandbags | Lowe’s Bracing Garage Doors |
| Home Depot Boarding Windows | Lowe’s Tarping a Roof |
| Home Depot Emergency Preparedness | Lowes Hurricane Preparedness Website |
Mental Health and Weather Events
This section is not intended as medical advice. Those feeling that they need assistance should contact their local health authorities and not rely on this information. This is just to give you a sense of the kinds of things that some people (remember, everyone reacts differently to these things) may encounter.
| Source | Description |
| American Psychiatric Association “How Extreme Weather Events Affect Mental Health | This generally focuses on single disasters and takes a broad view of the impacts. It also has a list of additional resources in the sidebar. |
| National Weather Service Storm Stress and Anxiety | This is more from the weather perspective but does offer some advice on how to address some of the stresses that may arise. |
| Canadian Mental Health Association (British Columbia Division) | Mental health tips for the family when dealing with natural disasters. |
Anti-Fraud
For some reason, some people find these kinds of events an opportunity to prey upon those that are desperate, vulnerable, or otherwise an “easier target.” It is very important to ensure that you are dealing with official and trustworthy organizations when in these situations. While you can ultimately check with any public help line set up in the event, the resources below may help as well.
| USA Consumer Protection Bureau: How Do I Avoid Scams and Fraud after a disaster. | Note that this is a USA site so the contact information should not be used (unless you live in the USA). It does provide decent guidance. |
| National Insurance Crimes Bureau: Disaster Fraud | Again, a USA site but guidance and tools to help you detect and avoid fraudsters. |
| FBI: Charity and Disaster Fraud | This is more informative and again, USA-centric. You may be asked to verify that “you’re a person” through a captcha the first time you visit the site. |
| Canadian Anti-Fraud Center | This Canadian source has significant details on different kinds of frauds and how to report them. |
| Vancouver Police Fraud Prevention | Another decent source of information and from a trustworthy source. |