Heavy rainfall has caused flooding conditions in several rivers in Quebec

Quebec officials reported flooding in several rivers north of Montreal and in Quebec City after heavy rains hit parts of the province this week.

In Saint-Jerome, 50 kilometers northwest of downtown Montreal, water flows of more than 260 cubic meters per second on Saturday morning led the province's public safety department to categorize flooding in the Rivière du Nord as “major” on Saturday morning. Officials recorded a flow of only 64 cubic meters per second in the same river three days ago.

The department noted “moderate” flooding in four other rivers and minor flooding at six other water level monitoring stations in the province, including one on the St. Charles River west of downtown Quebec City.

But most of the flooding reports were concentrated in Quebec's Laurentide and Lanaudier regions north of Montreal, which received 30 to 35 millimeters and 35 to 40 millimeters of rain, respectively, between Thursday and Saturday, Environment Canada meteorologist Felix Biron said.

The rural municipality of Chertsey, 45km north of St Jerome, said in a Facebook post on Saturday that torrential rain had washed out part of a local road, submerged two cars and forced about 50 residents from the rest of the town.

Provincial police spokeswoman Eva Brochu-Joubert said two passengers in one of the vehicles escaped unharmed. Authorities were initially unable to locate the driver of the second vehicle, but later located him safely

This Canadian Press report was first published on April 13, 2024.