Torrential rain | Roads cut, nearly 1,000 evacuees

Nearly a thousand Quebecers had to be evacuated Tuesday in a wide corridor in the center of the province where an “atmospheric river” poured up to 150 millimeters of rain in places. No injuries were reported, but infrastructure was damaged, while the return home will have to wait until Wednesday for some.

“We have broken roads, roads that are sectioned, culverts that give way, and that leads to isolated residences, and therefore to evacuations,” said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Security (MSP), Joshua Menard-Suarez.

The majority of the damage and evacuations are concentrated in the regions located in the corridor of the low pressure system, i.e. in Estrie (Bury, Potton, Sherbrooke), in Centre-du-Québec (Victoriaville), in Mauricie, in the Capitale-Nationale (Sainte-Brigitte-de-Laval, Beaupré, Saint-Raymond, Saint-Urbain) and in Chaudière-Appalaches.

“Municipalities, as the day progresses, will accumulate observations on their territory. The more they will be aware of what is happening at home, the more the number of evacuations could increase, ”warned Joshua Ménard-Suarez earlier in the day.

An “atmospheric river” in question

At the source of all this rain: a well-known meteorological phenomenon on the American west coast and called “atmospheric river”, although of lesser magnitude, explains the head of the meteorology department at MétéoMédia, André Monette.

“What we experienced was like an atmospheric mini-river,” he says. This meteorological phenomenon consists of a mass of warm air full of moisture coming from the ocean, in this case the Atlantic, which pours over the land.

The particularity of the episode experienced by Quebec in the last few days is that it occurred when the temperatures were very high, which meant that the air could store even more humidity than ‘normally.

However, “we were lucky in our misfortune, because it could have been worse”, indicates André Monette. The meteorologist gives as an example the case of the neighboring state of Vermont, where up to 250 mm of rain fell in places as part of the same weather event.

In Quebec, between 100 and 150 mm of rain fell in the space of 48 hours on several sectors in the center of the province. The largest quantities were received in southern Estrie, between the municipalities of Sutton and Coaticook, indicates André Monette.

State of emergency in Sainte-Brigitte-de-Laval

Once the rains are over, the situation should stabilize, said MSP spokesman Joshua Ménard-Suarez. For many, however, the return home will have to wait until Wednesday.

Thus, at midday on Tuesday, the municipality of Sainte-Brigitte-de-Laval, north of Quebec, declared a local state of emergency for a period of 48 hours “due to the evacuation of residents following the ongoing floods and the need to temporarily relocate them to places of accommodation”.

Earlier in the day, the municipality reported that approximately 225 residences were evacuated, or approximately 650 people.

Given an expected increase in the flow of the Montmorency River late Tuesday evening, they will have to spend a second night outside their homes, said the director general of the municipality, Marc Proulx.

“We will really wait 24 hours for the situation to be stable and the trend to be down before contacting people. […] to decide on a possible return time and date, ”he explained.

In Jacques-Cartier National Park, north of Quebec, campers could not be evacuated in time on Tuesday and are therefore stranded. “Everyone has been reached and is safe and calm,” said SEPAQ spokesperson Simon Boivin. “If during the day the water goes down again, we will take them out, or otherwise with a boat or something. »

The Saint-François River under surveillance

The significant amounts of rain that have fallen in Estrie since Monday have increased the level of the Saint-François River, which notably crosses downtown Sherbrooke.

The City said Tuesday morning that it was carrying out the first preventive evacuations in certain streets near the river. In the evening, the majority of the 638 evacuated residents were able to return to their homes in stages, the daily reported. The gallery.

“We went from 8 feet to 21 feet in less than four hours, it’s an extraordinary amount of water,” said the director of the Sherbrooke Fire Protection Service (SPCIS), Stéphane Simoneau, earlier.

Such a situation in the middle of summer, “it’s unheard of,” added the mayor of Sherbrooke, Évelyne Beaudin, during a press briefing in the rain on Tuesday morning.

“Before, we were able to have a model, an intervention recipe” which made it possible to predict the increase in the water level of the river according to the amount of rain, but now, “we see that our models are less consistent” due to climate change, added Mayor Beaudin.

Note that the Department of Public Security reported no injuries in connection with this episode of flooding.

With Lila Dussault, The Pressand The Canadian Press