Flooding erupted on Sunday in eastern Canada, mainly in Quebec, where more than 1,200 people have been evacuated and some 600 troops deployed in the field, according to a latest report by the authorities.
From Eastern Ontario to New Brunswick to southern Quebec, all of Eastern Canada has been affected for several days by spring floods due to heavy rainfall and snowmelt, accelerated by mild temperatures of the Easter weekend. The authorities, who initially feared a repeat of catastrophic floods in 2017 in Quebec, the worst in half a century, were however less alarming Sunday morning.
Nearly 800 evacuees
For several days, many municipalities have mobilized volunteers and distributed tens of thousands of sandbags to erect dikes or protect homes in particularly endangered areas. The most affected areas on Sunday were the Outaouais region near Ottawa, and Beauce south of Quebec City, where nearly 800 people have been evacuated. A thousand homes were flooded Sunday in the middle of the day across the province.
A first victim, Saturday, washed away
The army was called in by the governments of Quebec and New Brunswick. About 200 soldiers were deployed Saturday night in Quebec and 400 more were expected in the day Sunday, mainly in the Gatineau area, near the capital Ottawa, in Laval north of Montreal, and in Trois-Rivières between Montreal and Quebec City . About 120 soldiers could also be mobilized in the province of New Brunswick, in eastern Quebec.
The floods hit Saturday in the Quebec municipality of Pontiac (west of Ottawa), where a septuagenarian did not see a small bridge on the road was washed away, and fell with his vehicle in the stream below. Eastern Canada experienced its worst flood in the spring of 2017 in half a century. They had caused significant damage and the evacuation of several thousand people from Ontario to New Brunswick.