Category Archives: Disaster

Disaster

Cortes Island’s greatest risk: wildfire

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 My assumption is that we will, at some point in time, see a fire on Cortes of a severity that will flabbergast the population. It may not happen this year, and it may not happen in 10 years, but the conditions are getting very, very bad.

That is what Mike Brown, volunteer fire fighter and long time Cortes resident, had to say at the May 3rd meeting on Emergency Preparedness in the Pioneer Room.

At that thinly-attended meeting, SRD emergency services staffer Sarah Rosen gave a presentation on emergency preparedness for individuals and households. As part of her presentation she reviewed potential emergencies in our local area.

Cortes Island is fortunate to be sheltered from tsunamis; earthquakes are rare in BC; the island has no rivers to flood or dams to burst (unlike Campbell River, where the hydro power dam is currently undergoing seismic safety renovations). The island has no hazardous chemical plants or huge fuel dumps. The one serious disaster-grade risk to the Cortes community is wildfire.

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Disaster

Be Prepared: are you ready for an emergency?

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On May 3rd, Sarah Rosen from the Strathcona Regional District came to the Pioneer Room at Mansons Hall to talk about emergency preparedness… and there were about eight people in the room. As Sarah herself said, the biggest emergency preparedness risk on the island might just be that so few of us are thinking about it.

[I’ll admit that I’ve been procrastinating — not getting around to producing this story — and it might be because the subject is a little uncomfortable when you know that you yourself are not prepared. But avoidance and procrastination are exactly the problems that Sarah came to address, and she says being prepared might not be as daunting as you think.]

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Sarah Rosen speaks at the Pioneer Room, May 3rd 2026 — photo by Roy Hales

With just three questions: should I stay, should I go, how do I know? I’m gonna walk you through how you could prepare for everything.

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Disaster, Energy

Earthquakes shake up areas north of Edmonton

By David Boles, St Albert Gazette, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Residents living just north of the Alberta capital may have felt the ground shake beneath them on more than one occasion in the last few weeks.

Several earthquakes have been felt in central and northern Alberta, including one in Sturgeon County on April 18 that Earthquakes Canada says registered at a magnitude of 4.1.

While relatively rare, earthquakes in Wild Rose Country are not uncommon.

“There are natural earthquakes, that are related to the movement of tectonic plates off the west coast were plates are sliding past one another and colliding,” said John Cassidy, an earthquake seismologist with Natural Resources Canada.

Another tremor to hit rural Alberta came on Saturday, when a 3.8 magnitude earthquake struck northeast of Fort Saskatchewan.

Earthquakes Canada says the first quake was industry-related, something Cassidy says is an example of an induced earthquake.

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Disaster

2025 at the Cortes Island Fire Department

With 2025 coming to a close, it seems like a good time to get an update from the Cortes Island Fire Department. Currently, there are about 38 people working out of the island’s two fire halls, with another 20 enrolled in the wildfire brigade. 

Chief Eli McKenty noted, “I haven’t totalled this year’s call volume yet, but last year we had 105 calls. This year, we’re likely slightly higher at around 110.” 

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Disaster, Forests, Indigenous Nations

Amid climate impacts, leading Secwépemc firekeeper shares ‘a better way of looking after the land’

By Aaron Hemens, IndigiNews, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Growing up in Nlakaʼpamux and syilx territories in the 1970s, Joe Gilchrist can’t remember a single summer when wildfire smoke ever trapped him indoors. 

The Merritt, B.C., region’s semi-arid landscape still saw scorching summer temperatures back then, he recalled, but not the record-breaking fire seasons of recent years. 

“That was thanks to our work that the Indigenous ancestors did on the land,” said Gilchrist, a Secwépemc Nation member who now lives on Skeetchsn Indian Band’s reserve with his daughter.

“Then, everything was still fairly spaced out; the fires were easier to handle.”

Although settlers’ wildfire suppression efforts had become the dominant form of land stewardship when he was young, Indigenous communities in the Nicola Valley were still using fire to “cleanse” the land, Gilchrist said.

Continue reading Amid climate impacts, leading Secwépemc firekeeper shares ‘a better way of looking after the land’ →