While property insurance in Vancouver doesn’t differ greatly from property insurance in other cities, there are some specific risks to be aware of. Earthquakes. In Vancouver, earthquakes are probably the biggest concern as far as natural disasters go. The city is typically pretty temperate weather-wise, but for decades experts have been warning that an earthquake could hit the West Coast — one that could reach a staggering magnitude of 9.0 on the Richter scale. Tsunamis. While a major earthquake is guaranteed to cause major damage on its own, it is also likely to trigger another kind of natural disaster given Vancouver’s proximity to the ocean: tsunamis. In Japan, which is also bound by the Pacific Ocean, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake in 2011 created tsunami waves that were 40 metres high. These waves helped trigger the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.