Several rivers and lakes in Quebec remained under special surveillance by public security Monday morning as weather forecasts predicted rainfall for days in various areas of the province. On Monday morning, one sizable flood was observed, at Quesnel Bay on the Ottawa River in Rigaud, in the Montérégie region.
Nearly 70,000 Hydro-Quebec customers lost power Monday after rain and strong wind gusts pounded parts of the province. As of 2:00 p.m. Monday, the bulk of the outages were in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean (22,000), Quebec City (9,000), and the Laurentians (8,000). In Montreal, about 250 customers were in the dark.
Many rivers and streams will be under surveillance in Quebec over the next few hours as Environment Canada forecasts heavy rainfall in many parts of the province on Sunday and Monday. According to the forecast published Sunday morning by the federal weather service, the Montreal region and its surrounding areas should expect rainfall levels of 30 to 50 millimetres from Sunday evening to Monday.
Tension over the risk of flooding has dropped a notch in southwestern Quebec thanks to favourable weather. On the one hand, precipitation was lower than initially forecast at the beginning of the week and, on the other hand, the drop in the mercury is slowing down the snow melt.
Spring flooding hit some areas of Quebec Tuesday morning. Quebec Public Security reported significant flooding in the Laurentians, Saint-Jerome, Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts and Mont-Tremblant. Another flood occurred near Dorwin Falls in Rawdon, Lanaudière.