Early spring melt leads to school closures, evacuations, flooding in parts of Quebec
Several communities under flood watch after weekend's mild weather, rainfall
The City of Drummondville declared a state of alert Monday, advising residents in flood-prone areas near the rising Saint-François River to leave their homes.
Drummondville is just one of several Quebec communities under flood watch as mild weather and rain cause high water levels in several rivers in central and southern parts of the province.
In Beauceville, the streets along the Chaudière River were flooded Monday morning.
Late Sunday evening, an ice jam formed in the town centre of the municipality, causing the river to rapidly rise and burst its banks.
Beauceville set a heat record of 20.1 C on Sunday, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada. It was also the hottest place in Quebec.
The river's monitoring team issued an alert at around 7 a.m. warning people affected by the flooding to evacuate their homes and businesses. An emergency shelter has been opened at the local arena. As of 10 a.m., the river level had reached the minor flooding threshold.
Flooding has come earlier than usual, says Philippe Gachon, professor of hydroclimatology at Université du Québec à Montréal.
With temperatures reaching 14 C and 15 C, with no frost conditions, he says thawing not only occurred during the day but also overnight.
"All the water go[es] directly to the river without any possibility to go within the soil," said Gachon.
Michel Baraër says it will be important to see if the flooding will be able to naturally recede in the coming days.
"It was like we went from real winter to late spring in two days," said Baraër, a professor at École de technologie supérieure, specializing in snow on ice hydrology.
"It's been really cold. We did accumulate a significant amount of snow and the weather was cold enough to freeze the ground to somewhat good depths and also to form strong ice cover."
300 buildings evacuated in Drummondville
Earlier Monday, Drummondville had issued a precautionary measure ordering the evacuation of 300 buildings. As of 7 a.m., about 20 of them had already been evacuated.
"We are now in the alert phase, which means that we're now advising our residents living in flood zones to leave their homes," said city spokesperson Dominic Villeneuve.
He said those affected can go to the Centre sportif Girardin on Marchand Street.
"People on site can find heat, electricity to recharge equipment, they can take a shower," he said Monday morning.
Québec 511 also called on motorists to be careful when driving near waterways as their levels could cause some streets to flood.
13,000 asked to boil tap water
The City of Nicolet, a municipality near Trois-Rivières, asked its residents to boil tap water after flooding at its drinking water production plant caused an outage.
The city initially asked residents not to drink the water. As of Monday afternoon, boiling the water was recommended before consumption.The advisory also affects neighbouring municipalities that use Nicolet's drinking water.
The city is working to solve the problem and is distributing 18-litre water bottles. Each household is entitled to one bottle per day. The municipality estimates that 13,000 people are affected, including the villages surrounding Nicolet.
A water distribution kiosk has been set up opposite the water production plant, on boulevard Louis-Fréchette.
In Sherbrooke, certain streets are closed to traffic and municipal services are mobilized as the Saint-François River overflowed its banks in the city on Sunday night.
In a statement, the City of Sherbrooke said the river was under "high surveillance" and encourages people to visit its website to follow the situation as it evolves.
According to local services, the water level reached 5,80 metres on Sunday night under the Aylmer Bridge in downtown Sherbrooke.
The following traffic lanes were closed Monday morning in Sherbrooke:
- The access ramp leading to Galt Street West and Joffre Bridge on Grandes-Fourches Street South in the city centre.
- Little Fork and Reed streets.
Four other minor floods were reported Monday morning: the Bulstrode River in Victoriaville, in Centre-du-Québec; the Eaton River in Cookshire-Eaton, in Estrie; the Nicolet River near Saint-Léonard-d'Aston, in Centre-du-Québec; and the Rigaud River, which has affected Saint-Eugène in Ontario, near the provincial border.
Nine other waterways are being monitored.
The province's security ministry says the peak of the floods will be observed on Monday.
With files from Steve Rukavina, Hénia Ould-Hammou, based on reporting by Radio-Canada and CP