Environment Canada issued new tornado and severe thunderstorm watches for several regions of Quebec on Sunday, when more than 350,000 homes are still without power after an episode of strong winds the day before.
Posted at 8:50 a.m.
Updated at 1:45 p.m.
Estrie, Beauce and Montmagny-l’Islet are particularly affected by tornado watches. The Vallée-du-Richelieu, Rimouski, Québec and Drummondville–Bois-Franc regions, among others, are under the influence of a severe thunderstorm watch.
And this, while the significant damage left the day before by violent winds (roads strewn with trees, sagging electric poles, gutted house roofs) were still clearly visible in several regions of the province.
In Val-Morin, in the Laurentians, where nearly one out of two Hydro-Quebec customers was without electricity on Sunday morning, uprooted trees were visible almost at every street corner. This region was the most affected in terms of power outages according to the state company’s report on Sunday morning.
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PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Two men discuss the day after the violent storms that hit Val-Morin.
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Photo Dominick Gravel, the press
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“It lasted 30-40 minutes, very strong wind with rain. From my window, I saw a fallen tree, then two, then it was a domino,” says Michael Manouk, a resident of rue Morin whose gleaming red Lexus was flattened by a spruce.
A little further on Chemin de la Rivière, trees fell on the two cars, a Buick Encore and a Volkswagen Jetta, the shed and the house of Richard Duquette. “It happened very quickly. In ten seconds, one after the other, he calls from the edge of his window.
Imprisoned in his home by the trunk of a conifer that fell in front of his door, the man says he had the help of a good Samaritan who came to saw the log. Tenant of his house for five years, this is the first time he has witnessed such a storm.
A sea of branches
In Val-David, Stéphane Jeannerot is helped by two friends to saw the sea of branches that got along on his land on Sunday morning. “I was in the street next door, the wind was blowing through the trees like in the pictures you see on television [des ouragans en Floride] he says.
Just leaning against the roof of his pretty house, a huge pine tree worries his spouse, Elisabeth Gibeau, on the phone with the insurance. “We are waiting to find out what we do with it,” she sighs.
A long line of cars lined up in front of Dépanneur Voisin Jocelyn Villemaire Inc., the only gas station to be powered by a generator.
Lifted at the end of the evening, the severe thunderstorm warning sent by Environment Canada on Saturday extended from Haute-Gatineau, through Greater Montreal, to the Laurentides wildlife reserve.
Number of customers without electricity
- Laurentians: 142,374 out of 362,065
- Lanaudière: 90,518 out of 263,240
- Outaouais: 85,493 out of 224,649
- Capitale-Nationale: 16,648 out of 434,813
- Mauricie: 14,576 out of 168,051
- All of Quebec: 353,737 out of 4,492,115
According to the Hydro-Québec report of 1:16 p.m.
“Yesterday’s weather events caused significant damage on the ground, which led to outages in several regions of Quebec,” said Hydro-Quebec on Sunday morning, specifying that it had deployed 361 teams on the ground to restore the situation.
Five dead in Ontario
In Ontario, where the storm began, five deaths were reported in addition to a few injuries, due to strong winds from a line of destructive gusty thunderstorms, according to Environment Canada.
PHOTO MARTIN ROY, THE LAW
Cars were damaged near Merrivale Road in Ottawa.
In Gatineau, a 51-year-old woman lost her life after sinking into the Ottawa River. Gatineau police have confirmed that a drowning that occurred around 5 p.m. in these waters is under investigation.
In Quebec, gusts with a maximum speed of 144 km/h were recorded at Lake Memphremagog, while they reached 128 km/h in Shawinigan, 100 km/h at Quebec Airport and 96 km/h in Trois-Rivières, according to Environment Canada, late Saturday evening.