Canadian natural disasters and resultant damages triple in two decades: ICLR report

Natural disasters in Canada and damages arising from them have tripled since the 1980s, according to a comprehensive report published by the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR).
“Canada has had a fair share of natural disasters,” says the 223-page report, Canadians at risk: Our exposure to natural hazards. “Between 1983 and 1987, they cost Canadians about $500 million.
“Over the subsequent five years, these costs increased to about $750 million and they more than doubled to over $1.5 billion between 1993 and 1997.”
Between 1983 and 2006, the most frequent types of disasters in Canada were flooding, storms and hailstorms, according to data contained in the report.
The three most expensive types of storms, expressed in insured damages, were ice storms (two ice storms between 1983 and 2006 cost insurers a total of $1.96 billion), flooding (27 events cost insurers $1.3 billion) and storms (26 events cost $1.04 billion).
The report says four approaches have typically been taken to deal with the threat of natural disasters:
•    mitigation (prohibiting people from building in high-risk areas, for example);
•    preparedness (disaster planning);
•    response (deploying emergency crews after the disaster has occurred); and
•    recovery (strengthening building codes or developing land-use policies)
“In the past, most disaster-related efforts in Canada have focused primarily on preparedness, response and recovery,” the report says. “These will remain important activities but there’s an urgent need to shift the emphasis to mitigate risks and hazards, with a more pro-active approach.”
Six mitigation techniques listed in the report include the use of insurance to create incentives for policyholders to prepare for risk (or disincentives to prevent people from building in high-risk areas).
Other mitigation techniques include land use planning, building codes and standards, prediction and warning systems, new technologies (such as geographic information systems [GIS] or remote sensing) and public education.
The full report can be found at:
http://www.iclr.org/canadiansatrisk.html