Cleaning up after the Montreal storm: flooding, fallen branches and power outages

After a severe thunderstorm, Quebec residents are still recovering from flooding, power outages and fallen trees.

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) said the storm front that hit the Montreal area Thursday afternoon caused two tornadoes to touch down – one in Ottawa and one in Mirabel, Que. – while torrential rains fell and strong winds blew.

Although the Ottawa tornado damaged 125 homes, Mirabel was left without damage.

The heavy winds with speeds of up to 60 miles broke trees and damaged Hydro-Québec’s equipment.

Images shared on social media showed flooded basements, shopping malls and subway stations. Although six underpasses had to close Thursday night due to flooding, all have reopened, city spokesman Philippe Sabourin said.

In Montreal, about 85 millimeters of rain fell in two hours.

“No city in the world has the infrastructure to handle that much rain,” he said.

The city says it wants to create more green spaces that can act as sponges, so that water is absorbed into the ground during rainfall rather than being drained into the sewage system.

The fire service has been deployed to pump the water out of the buildings.

Sabourin said the city typically receives 90 millimeters of rain in July, meaning Montreal received nearly as much rain in two hours as it usually does in July. The city’s sewers simply don’t have the capacity to hold that much water, he said, explaining the flooding. The area south of the city center was hardest hit.

About 130 homes were flooded and the city’s 311 line received more than 1,300 calls. About 300 trees and branches fell, and workers will be on cleanup duty Friday, Sabourin said.

“We have enough manpower today, it’s nothing compared to the ice storm we saw in April,” he said.

Sabourin says it’s important to heed Environment Canada’s warnings, especially as extreme weather events are becoming more common due to climate change. He stresses that homeowners should make sure their check valves, which keep the water flowing, are in good working order.

The city also strongly advises people not to participate in water sports these days, as the rainwater could have polluted the St. Lawrence River.

Blackouts

More than 200,000 Hydro-Québec customers were still without power as of 7 a.m. Friday, including a trade school, the Gordon Robertson Beauty Academy, in Beaconsfield, Que., which was forced to close for today. At 4:30 p.m., nearly 55,500 customers were still without power.

In the hours leading up to the storm, half a million Hydro-Québec customers across the province were without power as wildfires in the James Bay region triggered grid protection mechanisms. Just as power began to be restored, numbers skyrocketed again as the storm swept past.

The utility says the vast majority of customers who have lost their power should have it back by the end of the day, but it warns that between 40,000 and 50,000 customers could be left in the dark until Sunday.

Several outages only affect about 50 customers, with those affecting a larger number of addresses being given priority. Hydro-Québec says it has 800 people on site.

“We were ready, we saw it coming, we put teams together to be proactive,” says Hydro-Québec’s head of energy flow control, Maryse Dalpé.

Dalpé emphasizes that people should not come close to fallen power lines or appliances. It also reminds the public not to use barbecues or generators indoors or anywhere near the home to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning.

Music festival evacuated

In the city of Quebec, the Feast of Quebec had to pull the plug – Les Cowboys Fringants – and evacuate the grounds for the second time this week due to the weather. The festival added a 12th date on Monday and the headliner will then perform.

Quebec City received 58 millimeters of rain in two hours.