(Montreal) There were still 10,000 Hydro-Québec customers who did not have access to power Tuesday morning, the day after the passage of a weather system which was accompanied by heavy rain, violent winds, thunderstorms and even a possible tornado.
Around 6 a.m., the state-owned company reported that 10,582 of its subscribers were affected by the 258 outages in progress. The regions most affected were the Laurentides, Lanaudière, Estrie and Bas-Saint-Laurent.
At the height of the event, Monday evening, more than 70,000 Hydro-Québec customers were out of service due to the storms. The state-owned company deployed more than 200 teams on the ground to restore power “as quickly as possible”.
Monday’s meteorological phenomenon was, however, marked by the passage of a possible tornado which caused material damage near Rigaud, in Montérégie.
In images that have circulated on social media, we can clearly see a rotating column moving.
Asked about this Monday evening, Environment Canada meteorologist Jean-Philippe Bégin clarified that it was too early to confirm the event beyond any doubt, but he added that his team had been able to confirm that these images were indeed taken in this sector, and that “everything points to a tornado”.
A team of researchers from the Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University in Ontario will travel to the site on Tuesday to investigate this event. On the social network .
According to the acting director of the Rigaud Fire Safety Service, Guillaume Roy, four houses were damaged, including one which had its roof torn off. Two barns and two grain silos were also damaged.
In one of these facilities, Mr. Roy noted that a garage containing chickens has disappeared.
He said Monday evening that fortunately no one was injured.
On its Facebook page, the municipality of Très-Saint-Rédempteur, near Rigaud, added that a residence and agricultural buildings were damaged by the tornado.