Quebec municipalities hit by remnants of tropical storm Debby face months of cleanup

Quebec municipalities hit by the remnants of tropical storm Debby say they're looking at months of recovery from a natural disaster that was unlike anything they had seen before.

Provincial officials said 14 municipalities remained under a state of emergency Monday afternoon following the torrential rain on Friday that dumped up to 175 millimetres of rain on Montreal and across a large swath of the province.

St-Lin-Laurentides, a small town of 26,000 people about 45 kilometres north of Montreal, was one of them. In an interview Monday, Mayor Mathieu Maisonneuve said he had slept less than 10 hours in total since Friday. "There were roads that were literally destroyed, that don't exist anymore," he said. "There are images that will remain engraved in our memories for a long time."

During the worst of the storm Friday evening, Maisonneuve said, 250 people were trapped in their homes because of flooding on the roads. He said at least 100 homes have sustained flood damage, and at least two were destroyed. Emergency services had to carry out several rescues in the area, including a man who disappeared in a kayak but was later found safe, and other people who were trapped in their cars and had to climb onto the roofs of their vehicles.

Maisonneuve said he has extended the state of emergency in his town until Thursday while emergency repairs are underway, but he said the work to fully rebuild damaged infrastructure will take much longer. "It will take ... definitely a few months before everything returns to normal," he said.

In La Macaza, a village in the Laurentians about 140 kilometres northwest of Montreal, Mayor Yves Bélanger said the storm knocked down utility poles and uprooted culverts. Several roads have been "heavily, heavily damaged," he said. "We're going to have months of reconstruction."

Bélanger said about 300 homes were temporarily cut off by floodwater on the roads, and about 10 households still don't have road access. "We've seen things before, because we live in a mountainous area. But there's never been anything like this," he said. "It's absolutely abominable."

Maisonneuve said he believes extreme events like this will become more frequent and intense due to climate change, and he's worried that communities aren't prepared to deal with them.

As of Monday afternoon, the Public Security Department said 52 Quebec municipalities were affected by the record rainfall, with about 347 people still evacuated. The government said the province's disaster financial assistance program will be available to those who meet certain criteria for damage not covered by private insurance.

In Montreal, the 175 millimetres of rain shattered the previous single-day record of 102.8 millimetres, set in 1996. It also far exceeded the average quantity of rain for the entire month of August, which is 94.1 millimetres.

Walter Assi, president of Renovco, a Montreal-based contractor, said his company has received more than 2,000 calls since Friday from homeowners in and around Montreal, most with flooded basements.

"I've been doing this for 30 years," he said. "I've done the (1998) ice storm, I've done the 2017 and 2019 floods and I can tell you, I've never, ever seen anything like it."

Right now, he said, workers are focused on emergency repairs – removing wet walls, flooring and furniture and making sure basements are safe. But he's anticipating there will be wait-lists several months long for renovations. "I don't believe there's enough labour in the market right now to supply all this demand," he said. "There's no way."

Assi said many homeowners may find the cost of repairing their property exceeds their insurance coverage, and will end up paying for part of the renovations out of pocket. He said people should "take matters into their own hands" and start removing wet material from their basements even if they're still waiting to speak with their insurer, to prevent the water damage from getting worse. Homeowners should document all the damage first, and be sure to wear masks and protective gear, he added.

Roughly 550,000 Hydro-Québec customers were plunged into darkness Friday, but that number had dropped to less than 200 without power as of Monday afternoon. "Some of these customers are located in areas and municipalities where the roads have had a lot of damage, so the access is complicated for Hydro-Québec crews," spokesperson Pascal Poinlane said in an email.

On Sunday, Quebec provincial police said they had recovered the body of a man in his 80s who was swept into the Batiscan River on Friday in the province's Mauricie region.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Quebec’s Environment Department confirmed that another small oil spill was observed in the St. Lawrence River off eastern Montreal following the rain on Friday.

The City of Montreal has still not identified the source of two motor oil spills that flowed into the river from a city storm sewer last month in the Pointe-aux-Trembles district. More oil has shown up in the river following each major rainfall since then, but the department says it’s been contained by mitigation measures already in place.

The department informed the city last week that it would be issuing a notice of non-compliance due to the contamination, the spokesperson said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 12, 2024.