Heavy rain, strong winds hit Quebec, thousands without power

Several regions of Quebec are under weather warnings Monday morning due to heavy rain and strong winds.

Quebec City police say about 20 homes were evacuated in the city’s northeast corner, near Lac des Petites Îles. 

Media reports said about 200 residences were evacuated near the Montmorency River north of Quebec City in Sainte-Brigitte-de-Laval.

Joshua Menard-Suarez, spokesman for Quebec’s civil service office, couldn’t confirm the total number of people forced from their homes but said the majority of the evacuations were ordered as a preventive measure.

He said water levels should reach their peak Monday evening and begin to descend as quickly as they rose.

Environment Canada says up to 80 millimetres of rain was expected in some regions of the province.

Roughly 68 millimetres had fallen in Montreal by 10 a.m., which was already a record for a single day of rainfall in December.

“The chances of a white Christmas are definitely waning, especially with this particular system right now,” said Chief Meteorologist, Natasha Ramsahai.

“This one also created a bunch of flood watches and warnings all along the US East coast. It started in Florida on the weekend. New York City was issuing watches and warnings and travel advisories, and the first is headed to Atlantic Canada. Next for Montreal, for Quebec, for the Eastern Townships, we’re really talking about rain. You move up towards Gaspésie, we’re talking about wind. I know there are already some power outages across the province from this storm, so this is very potent this coastal storm.”

In Montreal, over 3,700 Hydro-Quebec customers were without power on Monday morning.

At close to 7 p.m., about 23,000 Quebecers were still without power on Monday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Dec. 18, 2023.