Tornado overturns car and uproots several trees in Brossard
Posted July 25, 2024 9:19 am.
Last Updated July 25, 2024 6:23 pm.
A tornado overturned a truck and uprooted several trees in Brossard, on Montreal’s South Shore, Wednesday night.
Strong winds overturned the semi-trailer on Matte Blvd. around 8 p.m., said Longueuil police (SPAL) spokesperson Mélanie Mercille.
The driver suffered minor injuries.
SPAL reported the incident on social media, describing how trees were uprooted and a truck was flipped over. The driver of the semi-truck suffered minor injuries.
“I didn’t know there was a tornado and it was right where I worked. So, when I saw that, I went to the back where we have all our stock and all our inventory and the garbage was thrown around everywhere,” explained Ryan Forster, a store employee at Bolduc in Brossard. “There were pallets down in the trees. There were even more trees that were taken out of the ground, so it was just a complete mess.”
Environment Canada meteorologist Michèle Fleury said that a team will be investigating the effects of the tornado.
Two other tornadoes were confirmed in St-Hippolyte, north of Montreal and Cap-Sante, west of Quebec City.
“We could see on the pictures that there was a metal structure that was twisted. So that’s a pretty good indication that there was a tornado because of the indication of rotation in the damage,” explained Fleury. “There will be an investigation from the Northern Tornado project today. They are on the way to investigate the site. And they will tell us more about the strength of the tornado and the length of the path and all of that.”
Richard Lee is a Brossard resident who witnessed the tornado. He filmed a video of it from his window and posted it to social media.
He said that he was following the weather radar, when suddenly the wind picked up and he saw a column of air spinning on Matte Blvd.
“For the first time in my life, I witnessed a tornado in person from my living room window. I was following attentively the weather radar because thunderstorms were forming in Greater Montreal and some were headed to Brossard,” Lee told CityNews in a written statement.
“Suddenly, the winds started to pick up, so I looked outside again and saw a column of air spinning behind the trees of Parc Lunan (Matte Blvd). At that moment, I realized it was tornado and started recording it with my phone believing it was a safe distance at that moment.”
Lee said he then took cover for five minutes, adding that it was not safe to stand by the window since debris was flying.
Matte Blvd. was closed to traffic between Highway 30 and du Quartier Blvd. and was reopened later Wednesday evening.
“I was near the storm that maybe produced it and for a moment it just spin over me and then a violent gust of wind just pulled me back. And then I saw a funnel on the horizon just over the city and it possibly touched the ground with some flying debris around it,” said Quebec Vortex Storm Chaser Nicolas Lessard. “When I saw the funnel I thought wow, it’s spinning very fast for that kind of storm. It wasn’t a very strong storm at the moment and then 15 minutes later, I saw on the media that there was a tornado in Brossard.”
Over 3,500 customers were without power on the South Shore around 11 p.m. Wednesday.
“There was a thunderstorm watch and alert mentioning the risk of a tornado, but there was no tornado alert for Brossard unfortunately. This tornado perhaps took us a little bit by surprise. We expected generally a potential of tornado over a large region of southern and western Quebec,” added Fleury.
The power was almost completely restored Thursday morning, with a few thousand customers still waiting in the Laurentians and Capitale-Nationale regions.
Heavy rain fell in southern Quebec on Wednesday evening, particularly in Montreal, the Laurentians, Lanaudière and Montérégie.
“The lights flickered. I saw some debris blown in the air including a big fabric which came close to our building. Unfortunately, no tornado warning was issued here because the tornado formed very quickly, and I believe it touched the ground briefly. I would have wanted my phone to ring with the tornado warning,” concluded Lee.
–With files from La Presse Canadienne
