A tornado did indeed make landfall in southwestern Quebec around 5:30 p.m. Monday.
Environment Canada spokesperson Michèle Fleury confirmed that a tornado touched down in the Rigaud region, based on videos received and damage to buildings that were reported.
Mme Fleury said Tuesday noon that a team of investigators from Environment Canada was on their way to confirm the strength and trajectory of the tornado.
The mayor of Très-Saint-Rédempteur, Julie Lemieux, noted Tuesday that the tornado had toppled trees and damaged several houses and agricultural buildings in the small town as well as in Rigaud, nearby.
Authorities do not believe anyone was injured.
A homeowner from Très-Saint-Rédempteur, in the MRC of Vaudreuil-Soulanges, near the border with Ontario, says he had a narrow escape on Monday after his house was hit by the tornado.
Daniel Gélinas was having a coffee at home late in the afternoon when he noticed swirling clouds and saw his terrace “walking”.
He said in an interview Tuesday that he just had time to grab his dog and rush to the basement before the tornado tore the roof off his house, flattened his garage and scattered his belongings across the street. .
“We went outside, then it was total destruction […] Our gazebo and all that, the garage: in the tree,” he said.
Mr. Gélinas and his wife Julia Asselstine say they are still in shock to see four years of hard work to restore the property destroyed in seconds. But they are relieved to be safe and say they will rebuild it.
The acting director of the Rigaud Fire Safety Service, Guillaume Roy, indicated Monday evening that four houses had been 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 had disappeared.
Furthermore, a little more than 6,000 Hydro-Québec customers were still without electricity at the start of Tuesday afternoon, the day after the passage of a weather system which was accompanied by heavy rain and violent winds. and storms — not to mention the tornado in Montérégie.
Tuesday at 1:30 p.m., the state-owned company reported that more than 6,028 customers were affected by 117 ongoing outages. The regions most affected are Estrie, Montérégie, Outaouais, Montréal-Laval and Lanaudière.
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”.