A pedestrian was swept away by the waters of the Batiscan River when the roadway collapsed during the passage of the post-tropical storm Debbylate Friday, in Mauricie.
Emergency services were alerted around 11:30 p.m. to the tragedy that occurred in Notre-Dame-de-Montauban, in the Route du Moulin area, in the MRC of Mékinac.
“According to initial information, following the bad weather, the roadway collapsed in the area. Two people found themselves in a precarious position. One tried to rescue the other, but unfortunately without success,” explained Camille Savoie, spokesperson for the Sûreté du Québec, in an interview Saturday morning.
“Currently, the location is inaccessible, steep and dangerous,” she continued. “Since it is impossible for the police to comb the banks, drones are being used to detect any element that would allow us to locate the missing individual.”
Record amounts of rain
Several municipalities in Quebec received record amounts of rain in the space of 24 hours, exceeding 100 millimeters and up to 221 mm in Lanoraie, in the Lanaudière region.
According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, 154 mm of rain fell in Dorval and 145 mm in downtown Montreal. This is an amount that far exceeds the 94 millimetres of rain that fall on average throughout the month of August in the Montreal area.
Data published at 8:10 a.m. Saturday by Environment Canada also reported an accumulation of 173 mm in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue in the west of the island, 163 mm in Brossard, on the South Shore, and 160 mm in Terrebonne on the northern shore.
In Lanaudière, Premier François Legault’s riding of L’Assomption received 132 mm of rain, while 114 mm of rain was recorded in Trois-Rivières, in Mauricie.
“The torrential rains that fell on Quebec [vendredi] caused flooding in several homes and damage in several regions. The Quebec government supports the affected municipalities. My thoughts are with all the people who have suffered a disaster or losses,” said a tweet from Premier François Legault on the social network X.
The torrential rains that fell on Quebec yesterday caused flooding in several homes and damage in several regions. The Quebec government supports the affected municipalities. My thoughts are with all those who have suffered a disaster or losses…
— François Legault (@francoislegault) August 10, 2024
On the Outaouais side, the Gatineau sector received 70 to 100 mm of water, then in Estrie, we are talking about 80 mm of rain in Sherbrooke and 112 mm in Granby, in Estrie.
And it’s not over…
“There will be residual showers for the Centre-du-Québec, especially in the morning. [samedi] “, indicated meteorologist Michèle Fleury, from Environment Canada in an interview at the end of the day.
The rain should stop in the morning on Saturday on the Lower North Shore and in places in Gaspésie.
The storm then heads towards northern New Brunswick, which should also receive an accumulation of 30 to 40 mm of rain before the end of the morning.
The return of good weather is expected on Sunday, and sometimes even as early as Saturday afternoon, for all affected regions.
Breakdowns and floods
The remains of Debby have also caused a lot of trouble in Quebec.
There were still 143,544 Hydro-Québec customers without power around 9:15 a.m. Saturday morning, mainly in the Estrie (50,019 customers) and Laval (40,101 customers) regions.
Outages affected up to 550,000 customers during torrential rains Friday night.
Several basements were also flooded.
A boil water advisory was issued Saturday for the cities of Boucherville, Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, the borough of Saint-Hubert and part of the borough of Vieux-Longueuil, in Longueuil, due to a drop in pressure following a breakdown caused by the power outage.
Tap water should be boiled vigorously for at least one minute before consumption.
Motorists also found themselves stuck with their vehicles, apparently taken by surprise by large quantities of water on the road, even in residential areas.
Motorists were also stuck on highways 13, 15 and 40 while several sections of highways were closed in the greater Montreal area.
“Roads remain closed in several regions of Quebec, including Mauricie and Montreal, where the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel is closed in both directions,” stated a press release issued Saturday morning by the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility.
“Teams from the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility have been deployed on the ground since the start of the rainfall and are currently assessing the damage to the infrastructure and the roads affected,” the press release added.
Also note that there were still delayed or even cancelled flights Saturday morning at Montreal-Trudeau International Airport.