Highway 13 closure in Dorval after heavy rainfall causing ‘big headache’ for residents, businesses

The impact of the heavy rainfall left by Tropical Storm Debby is still being felt in many parts of Quebec on Monday, but a return to normal is gradually taking place.

According to Hydro-Québec, only “a few hundred” homes that lost power on Friday still did not have electricity restored on Monday.

In some cases, it applies to more isolated homes or cottages. In others, reconnecting power is more complex because Hydro-Québec’s teams are having difficulty getting to the sites due to damage to the roads.

“We go where we can, but we always have to go to places where it is safe. We have trucks that weigh a certain amount, so the roads have to be repaired by the municipalities before we can go there,” explained Pascal Poinlane, a spokesperson for Hydro-Québec.

In some specific situations, it is simply not possible to restore power at this time.

“If, for example, a homeowner has had their home damaged by water or their electrical panel, located in a basement, has been affected, they must first ask their electrician to come and repair the electrical installation before Hydro-Québec can restore power,” said Poinlane.

At the height of the outages on Friday evening, 550,000 of the utility’s customers were plunged into darkness across the province.

Since other storms occurred over the weekend, new outages have been triggered, meaning that overall, a few thousand Hydro-Québec customers are still facing a service interruption.

Poinlane says in many cases, teams have been assigned and will be deployed quickly to reconnect the power.

Dorval Tunnel flooded

The Dorval Tunnel that travels under the landing area of the Montreal-Trudeau airport was still closed Monday morning due to an accumulation of water after a pumping station was damaged.

It forced the complete closure of Highway 13 between Highway 40 and Highway 520 for an indefinite period.

“At this moment, we are pumping the excess water that is still there because the pumping system, original pumping system has been damaged,” said Gilles Payer, a spokesperson for Transport Quebec.

It’s causing a “big headache” for those who use the Dorval Tunnel or Highway 13 regularly.

Zahid Siddiqui, the manager of Déménagement Economax moving company located next to Highway 13 near the Dorval Tunnel, says the closure has tripled the amount of time it takes for his trucks to reach their destinations.

“It gives us most trouble because our main exit and entry is this Highway 13,” said Siddiqui. “So since it’s blocked, our trucks have to take local roads. Because of that it takes a lot of time.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen but it’s really a big impact on us — our drivers, our trucks.”

Transport Quebec is asking drivers to use Highway 40 and the 520 for essential travel. They are also recommending that road users avoid the area and use public transit, and that residents work from home whenever possible. Payer says the hope is to reopen this stretch of Highway 13 on Wednesday.

“The pumps were broken because they were flooded themselves,” Payer said. “And actually, we’re working with more temporary and external pumps that have been bring over there to make the job faster.”

Payer adds that motorists should consult the Quebec 511 website to get the latest information on this and other possible highway closures in Montreal and the province when planning a trip.

Siddiqui acknowledges many Montrealers are impacted.

“Not only us, I think everybody is suffering in Montreal,” he said. “This 13 is the main artery, main artery 13 and 15. And I think the whole burden 15 is taking and 13 is a very busy highway. It’s going to LaSalle, to downtown and all the way.

“The authorities should know how big impact this has on everybody.”

Record amount of rainfall

Several Quebec municipalities received record rainfall amounts in the space of 24 hours on Friday, exceeding 100 millimeters in many places, as the province was swept by the remnants of Tropical Storm Debby.

According to Public Safety Minister François Bonnardel, 55 municipalities were affected by flooding. Specifically, 260 homes were flooded.

In addition, 400 people were evacuated, nearly 170 roads were damaged, and eight municipalities have declared a state of local emergency.

“There’s no way for cities to be able to handle that much water,” Barbara Ronnie, who works in Dorval, told CityNews. “I mean, it’s like if you lived in an area where you had hurricanes and you were used to the rain and the cities would prepare for that kind of incident.

“So now I guess they’re going to have to have meetings and hopefully be able to fix this so it doesn’t happen again.”

Some disaster victims who meet the eligibility criteria will be eligible for financial assistance under the General Disaster Financial Assistance Program, the government has announced.