Emergency Services


Hazard Analysis Report

This report is divided into the following categories:

1) INTRODUCTION:  

2) OVERVIEW:

3) DEFINITION:

4) METHODOLOGY:

5) CONCLUSION:

INTRODUCTION:

   

This report analyzing the hazards that may face the Municipality of Ritchot, include the following areas:

 Ward 1: Communities of Ile Des Chenes and surrounding area.

 Ward 2: Communities of St. Adolphe and surrounding areas.

 Ward 3: Communities of Ste. Agathe, Glenlea and surrounding areas. 

 Ward 4: Communities of Grande Pointe, Howden and surrounding areas

 

The reasons for completing a community Hazard analysis is:

  • To determine what hazards may exist within a community, thereby creating awareness for emergency preparedness and planning.
  • To fulfill the obligations of completing the recent criteria set out by the Manitoba Emergency Measures Organization.

 

OVERVIEW

In order to complete the hazard analysis report, the following steps were conducted to ensure a fair and representative analysis was conducted for the Municipality. 

1)     Gathering of information and data.

2)     Analyzing the information and data.

3)     Using an approved scoring system to obtain results.

The process of gathering information and data was tasked to the four(4) Councilors in the Municipality of Ritchot.  These Councilors being Maurice Leclaire (ward 1), Linda Morin (ward 2), Raymond Philippe (ward 3), and Valerie Rutherford (ward 4).

Each Councilor was requested to have 15 Hazard analysis Checksheets completed by a variety of individuals within their perspective wards.  These individuals polled were to be varied in demographics, including background, age and profession to name a few.

Once the gathering of data was completed the Municipalities Emergency Coordinator analyzed the data and then using the approved scoring system of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management agency, (United states), plotted the 10 major hazards facing the Municipality of Ritchot.

This report, like other reports in the Municipalities Emergency Plan was tasked to an individual, not a Community or Committee. Therefore the information gathered in this report might be limited in scope.

DEFINITION

 DEFINITION OF A HAZARD:

A potential or existing condition that may cause harm to people or to damage property of the environment.

 

DEFINITION OF HAZARD ANALYSIS:

  • The systemic collection of past and present information relating to natural or man made emergencies, aimed at estimating the future likelihood of an emergency occurring.    

HAZARDS CAN BE DIVIDED INTO TWO CATEGORIES:  

NATURAL:

  • Flooding/heavy rains
  • Tornadoes
  • Summer storms, lightning, hail
  • Winter storms, blizzard, ice storms, severe cold.        
  • Forest/brush fires- caused by lightning, dry conditions.
  • Epidemic, West Nile, Pandemic flu.

MAN-MADE:

  • Transportation accident, air, rail, highway     
  • Industrial accident, pipeline, chemical storage       
  • Utility failures, natural gas, Electrical
  • Major water main break, contamination.

METHODOLOGY

Based on a two part scoring system:

1)-Hazard analysis check sheets.

2)-FEMA model for assessing factors.  

1)- Hazard analysis checksheet:

The checksheet lists 36 possible hazards that exist.  The polled residents were then asked to rate these hazards on a scale of 0–5.  

0            Not applicable to my community

1            Not probably

2            Low probability

3            Moderate probability

4            High probability

5            Near certain  

Upon reviewing all the check sheets, the data revealed the top 10 hazards that the residents of Ritchot felt were most likely to occur in the municipality were:  

 

Results Hazard Value 
1) Blizzard/freezing ice storms      139 points

2)

River floods                            121 points
3)  Utility outage                         77 points
4)  Dangerous Goods                              49 points
5)  Major hail storms                               49 points 
6) Drought   42 points
7)    Massive auto wrecks                            42 points
8)    Tornado 29 points
9)  Water main Break                                        26 points
10)    Severe fog                                           20 points

 

2) FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) Model

The FEMA MODEL uses four criteria to rate and score the events:

Any score over 100 is listed as high possibility an emergency may occur and a Contingency plan should be developed.  

1) History                                

If the event has occurred in the past, then it may occur again, unless those conditions no longer exist or have been mitigated.  

2) Vulnerability                       

Attempts to determine the number of people and the value of property maybe vulnerable in an emergency.  Factors such as location of population, value of property, may effect the score.  

3) Maximum Threat               

This is the worst case scenario: If an emergency occurred, then what would be the maximum impact upon human casualties, and property within the community.  

4) Probability                         

Is the likelihood of an emergency occurring This is expressed in chances per year that the emergency may occur, and may be effected by technological change.  

 

CONCLUSION

Based on the data from the community hazard analysis check sheets which was then formatted into the FEMA model the following hazards are most prevalent in the RM of Ritchot.    

1- Blizzard/freezing ice storm:                                     142 points

2- Utility outage                                                          130 points 

3- River Flood                                                             127 points

4- Industrial Accident/dangerous goods                         72 points

5- massive auto wreck                                                 62 points

6- Major hail storm                                                       55 points

7- Drought                                                                   44 points

8- Water main Break                                                    34 points

9- Tornado                                                                   24 points

10-Severe Fog                                                              24 points  

Communities should also be aware that although some hazards rated lower than others, it does not mean that the lower rated hazard will not occur.  The ratings can be effected based on the community’s level of preparedness and their ability to react to the matter.  Such is the case with winter storms, whereby people prepare themselves by dressing accordingly.                                                   

 

In Conclusion

This report was meant to assist in identifying hazards that exist in the community so that the community can work towards emergency planning and preparedness.