Several municipalities were on the alert on Sunday in Greater Montreal, when heavy rains of up to 35 millimeters were forecast until Monday morning in the region. Environment Canada warns that flooding is possible, especially in the lowlands.
“Heavy rains can cause flash flooding and water accumulation on the roads. Flooding is possible in places in the lowlands, “the federal agency warned in a special bulletin at the start of the day.
Current forecasts call for a total of 25 to 35 millimeters of rain over most areas of Greater Montreal through Monday morning. In the middle of the day, the Ministry of Public Security (MSP) counted a flood of medium order and 14 of minor order on Quebec territory. Just over a dozen hydrometric stations were then “on watch”.
In Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue in particular, barricades have also been set up to contain some minor flooding on the street. In Terrasse-Vaudreuil as well, some sections of streets were flooded and Lac des Deux Montagnes came out of its bed near Highway 20. In Montérégie, the city of Rigaud also reported flooding. In Rawdon, entire streets were also flooded.
The spokesperson for Civil Security at the MSP, Joshua Ménard-Suarez, is however reassuring. According to him, the “situation remains under control”, he mentioned in an interview.
A few days ago, the preventive distribution of sand dikes began in several areas of Montreal, including Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue and Pierrefonds-Roxboro.
On Sunday, the City of Montreal reiterated that it had “deployed the necessary resources to optimize the response in the event of an emergency”. “We are still in intervention mode and are monitoring the situation closely,” said Mayor Valérie Plante on Twitter.
Environment Canada meteorologist Dominic Morin says the 25 to 35 millimeters of rainfall “will add to the vulnerabilities already present on the rivers.” “On the small rivers in the Ottawa watershed, this rain will come and eventually flow into the river, which may increase the water level in the coming days. We will have to be vigilant, ”continues Mr. Morin on this subject.
That said, “the rivers are capable of taking it right now,” recalls Mr. Ménard-Suarez. “We had a first peak of growth at the end of last week, but after that the rivers have mostly remained stable, so there is still space,” he explains. .
Quebec nevertheless monitors “very closely” the regions of Outaouais, Laurentides, Lanaudière and Montreal. “We are looking more specifically at the Ottawa River watershed, which is a little more fragile as we speak,” said the spokesperson for Civil Security.
On Friday, the Montreal Metropolitan Community (CMM) had also invited residents of areas at risk of flooding and the stakeholders involved to visit its cruesgrandmontreal platform. ca, an “additional tool developed to help them better prepare and thus reduce their impacts”.
The organization claims that its site makes it possible to know in real time “the water level on a property in the absence of protective works as well as the forecasts of submersion over a horizon of 72 hours”. “This information is available for any sector located along one of the main metropolitan waterways, namely the St. Lawrence River / Lake Saint-Louis; Ottawa River/Lake of Two Mountains; as well as the Mille Îles, des Prairies, Richelieu, Saint-Jacques, L’Assomption and Châteauguay rivers,” the CMM said.
