Power nearly restored across Quebec after record rainfall from Debby (2024)

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By Sunday afternoon, power had been restored to all but about 10,000 Hydro-Québec customers after high winds and heavy accumulations of water brought about by the record rainfall of post-tropical storm Debby had caused power outages in several regions of the province. At the peak of the outages, on Friday evening, nearly 550,000 customers were without power.

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At 7:15 p.m. Sunday, 811 of 7,977 Hydro customers still without power were on the island of Montreal. In the Eastern Townships, the region most affected by the outages through the weekend, 2,147 were still without power.

The “vast majority” of customers would have power restored by Sunday evening, the utility said, with “more complex situations,” such as those related to issues of accessibility, to be restored by Monday.

Nearly 300 teams were at work Sunday restore power, with crews travelling between regions to speed up restoration; Hydro was also calling on outside contractors to lend a hand. Most outages have a recovery time available; it is adjusted continually on the Info-pannes regional site.

The Greater Montreal area received a record amount of rain, with an accumulation of 150 millimetres within 24 hours, according to Environment Canada. The amount greatly exceeded the average of 94 mm for the area during the entire month of August.

Data from the agency on Friday night showed an accumulation of 157 mm of rain in the Montreal region, 145 mm in downtown Montreal and 173 mm in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue.

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Denis Bélanger, civil security spokesperson for the Public Security Ministry, said 43 municipalities in the province were affected by the heavy rainfall, with flooding in 220 homes. He said there were landslides in the Laurentians and in the Lanaudière, Mauricie and Centre-du-Québec regions and that 300 people had to be evacuated.

Québec 511 recommended that only essential travel should be undertaken in the Lanaudière region to allow teams to secure the infrastructure and roads damaged by Friday’s heavy rains.

On social media, residents in many areas reported flooding in their homes, including the St-Laurent borough, Laval, Beaconsfield and in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, where the civic centre took on several inches of water.

Beaconsfield resident Christine Guerrera said more than a foot of water had accumulated in the basem*nt of her Montrose St. home by early Friday evening. “I’m bailing and mopping now,” she told The Gazette on Saturday afternoon. “It’s gone down quite a bit, but it’s a total disaster — a disaster.”

She said neighbours she encountered on her street Friday night said they had experienced the same thing. “We were all walking up and down (the street Friday) night and sharing stories. I know our neighbours on either side of us said they have a foot of water in their basem*nts.”

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Guerrera said that as the rain continued to fall, she and her husband checked around their house, lowered the level of water in the pool and made sure their sump pump was working.

“Everything was fine but then, after a half-hour or so, there was a foot of water in the basem*nt. It was just gushing through the shower and the toilet in the basem*nt. Obviously, the city’s sewers backed up. It’s not pretty — it’s sewage.”

They turned off their power and tried to sleep, she said, and by Saturday morning, only puddles were left.

“Now, I’m mopping and I’m doing my best because we can’t reach anyone. We were on the phone for an hour and a half with our insurance company and couldn’t reach anyone. Finally, my husband filed a claim online.”

Guerrera said she tried to contact five companies that deal with flood damage, but hadn’t heard back from any.

The city of Montreal held a media briefing at about 3:30 p.m. Saturday with an update on the flooding. Marie-Andrée Mauger, mayor of the Verdun borough and the person in the Projet Montréal administration responsible for ecological transition and the environment, said some municipal infrastructures remained closed, but that the entire road network was open and all STM bus lines were running.

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“We can say the situation is under control, but it is not 100 per cent back to normal,” she said. “We know it was a trying evening, a morning, a difficult day for many home and business owners where, unfortunately, there was flooding.”

Martin Guilbault, head of operations for the Montreal fire department, said at the media briefing that firefighters received 614 calls between 6:30 p.m. Friday and noon Saturday; 135 of them concerned flooding. On three occasions, firefighters used boats to help motorists trapped in their vehicles.

In the St-Laurent borough, an underpass on Marcel-Laurin Blvd. just north of Henri-Bourassa Blvd. was still flooded late Saturday afternoon. The flooding blocked access to the most heavily used roadway in the borough, causing unusual weekend traffic jams elsewhere in St-Laurent. Water often accumulates in this underpass after heavy rain.

Other parts of the province saw even greater levels of precipitation. The municipality of Lanoraie, in the Lanaudière region, was lashed with 221 mm of rain.

Quebec’s Transport Ministry released a statement on Saturday saying the storm caused major damage to several roadways, with the Lanaudière and Mauricie regions hit hardest. The municipality of L’Assomption in Lanaudière received 130 mm of rain and Trois-Rivières, in the Mauricie region, received 103 mm.

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On the Outaouais side, the Gatineau sector received 70 to 100 mm of water and about 76 mm of rain fell in Sherbrooke, in the Eastern Townships.

In an interview Friday night, meteorologist Michèle Fleury of Environment Canada said the lower north shore could expect a lot of rain Saturday morning.

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The rain was expected to stop Saturday at midday in parts of the Gaspésie, she said. “We are expecting between 30 and 50 mm, particularly in the south of Gaspésie.

“The storm then heads toward Newfoundland. In the western portion of Newfoundland, high amounts are expected — i.e., nearly 50 mm of rain,” Fleury said.

Northern New Brunswick was expecting an accumulation of 30 to 40 mm of rain before the end of Saturday morning.

By Sunday, good weather had returned for the affected regions.

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Some Hydro-Québec customers without power were in a flood situation, the utility said on Sunday, so power could not be restored for the time being because of safety reasons.

The utility warned people not to approach downed wires or objects in contact with the network but, rather, to call 911 to have the area secured. In the event of flooding, if the water has not yet begun to flood the basem*nt, turn off the power to avoid danger of electrocution or fire, said Hydro-Québec. Before turning off the main switch, customers should make sure they are not standing on a wet floor or leaning against a metal object.

If water starts to flood the basem*nt, don’t touch anything, but call Hydro-Québec immediately at 1-800-790-2424 to have service disconnected at the meter or pole.

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A boil-water advisory was issued Saturday for Boucherville, St-Bruno-de-Montarville, the borough of St-Hubert and part of the borough of Vieux-Longueuil because of a drop in water pressure following a breakdown caused by electrical failure. Tap water should be boiled at a rolling boil for at least one minute before consuming it.

Motorists also found themselves trapped in their vehicles, caught by surprise by the accumulation of water on the roads, even in residential areas. Motorists remained stuck on Highways 13, 15 and 40, while several sections of highways were closed in the Greater Montreal region.

This was the case for Highway 13 North in Montreal, near Louis-A.-Amos, because of flooding.

Highway 13 remained closed between Samson and Cléroux Blvds., northbound in Laval, as of early Saturday morning.

There were also reports of closings of Highway 25 in Montreal (Exit 3 — Notre-Dame St., southbound) and at the Mille-Îles River, in both directions, in Terrebonne, at about 8:20 p.m.

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Notices from the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility reported closings of the Papineau-Leblanc Bridge between Montreal and Laval and of Highway 20 at Kilometre 49 in Pointe-Claire, as well as Highway 40 at the Île-aux-Tourtes bridge. The list grew longer through the evening.

Flights at Montreal-Trudeau International Airport were delayed or even cancelled Saturday morning.

The heavy rains caused a fatality in the Mauricie region, in the Mékinac MRC, on Friday night, when a pedestrian was swept away by the waters of the Batiscan River after a roadway sank. Emergency services were alerted at about 11:30 p.m. to the tragedy.

“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,” Sûreté du Québec spokesperson Camille Savoie said on Saturday.

The lifeless body of the man in his 80s was located Sunday morning in the Batiscan River. An investigation was launched by the Sûreté du Québec in collaboration with the coroner’s office with the aim of clarifying the causes and circ*mstances of the incident.

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