Emergency Planning

Disaster Financial Assistance Event Declaration

The British Columbia government is offering Disaster Financial Assistance (DFA) to eligible individuals, small businesses, farms, and charitable organizations in the Southwest Region of British Columbia, including Coquitlam, as a result of flooding caused by an atmospheric river event that occurred October 18 to 20, 2024.

Eligible expenses may include building repairs, replacement of essential personal effects, equipment and inventory, clean up and debris removal. The program may provide applicants with assistance to restore essential uninsurable losses.

Eligibility and Application Guidelines

  • Contact your insurance provider to determine if your current policy provides coverage for the resulting damage. 
    • As part of the DFA qualification process, the applicant’s insurer will be asked to provide a letter indicating that the applicant could not have purchased insurance to cover these disaster-related losses.
  • Claims must be submitted within 90 days of the event declaration; the deadline to submit has been extended to March 13, 2025.
  • The Online DFA Application Portal is available on the DFA website.

For all questions related to the Disaster Financial Assistance program, email DFA@gov.bc.ca  or telephone: 1-888-257-4777 (toll-free)

Disaster Response Plan

The City of Coquitlam is located in one of the most beautiful areas in British Columbia and like all surrounding municipalities our community is vulnerable to emergencies and disasters. These events can occur anywhere and anytime and often result in unpredictable consequences.

Coquitlam is committed to providing leadership and guidelines to meet the challenges associated with emergency management. This includes preparation and planning to safeguard the health, safety and welfare of its citizens, and to provide an effective response and recovery as much as possible. The Coquitlam Disaster Response Plan (PDF) provides an overview of the City’s emergency management commitments and response methodologies.

Public Works Response Plan & Division Operation Centre Guidelines

The Public Works Response Plan and Division Operation Centre Guidelines (PDF) describe how the Public Works Division and its sections (Water, Sewer, Roads, Fleet Operations and the Utility Control Centre) will organize, assess, prioritize and support public works staff responding in the field during a major disaster. This plan provides the information, checklists and forms, required to support the Public Works Division establish a Public Works Division Operation Centre to respond to and begin recovery of an impending or actual disastrous event. 

Evacuation Planning

In the event of a major earthquake or severe storm, some areas of Coquitlam could be subject to flooding risk and may require evacuation.

In the highly unlikely event that an extreme earthquake causes failure of the Coquitlam Dam, water from behind the dam would flow into City of Coquitlam and residents in the lower areas along the Coquitlam River would be required to evacuate. Please consult the Coquitlam Dam Emergency Inundation Zone and Road Network Map (PDF) to become familiar with the road network in your area and route to high ground outside the inundation zone.

It is important to note that in 2008 the Coquitlam Dam received significant upgrades and only under an extremely severe earthquake or similar catastrophic event would a dam breach occur. Please refer to the BC Hydro website for more information on dam safety.