Laurentians | Thousands of residents without power after tornado

Une tornade a bel et bien frappé la municipalité de Saint-Adolphe-d’Howard, dans les Laurentides, samedi. Des milliers de clients d’Hydro-Québec sont encore une fois privés d’électricité dans la région.

Vincent Larin
La Presse

« Sans y être allé en personne, on peut dire à 90 % que c’était une tornade, même si on ne sait pas de quelle force elle était », a indiqué dimanche le météorologue à Environnement Canada, Peter Kimbell.

Rappelons que selon les procédures, Environnement Canada se doit d’envoyer des ressources sur le terrain afin de confirmer le passage d’une tornade, un phénomène rare, mais pas inhabituel en été au Québec.

Parmi les indices répertoriés jusqu’ici sur les nombreuses images d’internautes publiés samedi, la présence d’arbres dont les troncs ont carrément été sciés par la force du vent. « Donc [il y avait] gusts at least up to 130 km / h, but it can go even higher, ”says Peter Kimbell.

Shortly after this interview, Environment Canada published a brief report according to which a tornado had indeed struck the municipality of Laurentides.

“The destructive winds heavily damaged houses and broke/uprooted many trees. An analysis is underway to determine the strength of this tornado.

Sunday morning, some 583 residences were still without power in Saint-Adolphe-d’Howard, including almost all residents of Lake Saint-Joseph, according to the Hydro-Québec Info-pannes site.

However, a spokesperson for the state corporation, Alain Paquette, said in an interview that this number was in fact much higher. More than 2,000 customers would in fact be without electricity in the Laurentians region, mainly in the municipalities of Saint-Adolphe-d’Howard and Saint-Agathe-des-Monts.

“We are seeing major, significant damage. The first challenge is to be able to access the Hydro-Québec network. Several roads are congested, so we have to clear them, then do the necessary work,” explains Mr. Paquette.

The violent winds and the possible tornado must have brought back bad memories to local residents who, at the end of May, had already tasted a similar phenomenon which had cut off electricity to up to 550,000 Hydro-Québec customers in the across the province at the height of the storm.

This is not the only region of Quebec to have suffered the pangs of the weather on Saturday.

In the Escoumins sector, on the North Shore, gusts at 96 km damaged certain structures, says Environment Canada.

Also, hailstones up to 5 centimeters in diameter were observed in certain localities in the Outaouais, in the Laurentians, and in the north of Lanaudière.