Southern Ontario, Quebec on flood watch as heavy rain expected

ABOVE: Water flows in the Moira River east of Toronto reached the same levels as major flooding in 2008 but stabilized on Sunday as residents in Belleville frantically threw down sandbags and hoped that heavy rains wouldn’t materialize.

BELLEVILLE, Ont. – Teams of volunteers in southern Ontario and Quebec were preparing for flooding with walls of sandbags on Sunday as they awaited heavy rain expected to hit parts of both provinces over the next several days.

Environment Canada said parts of Ontario could get up to 75 millimetres of rain by early Tuesday, while upwards of 45 millimetres of rain was expected in southern and central Quebec.

“The frozen ground has a reduced ability to absorb this rainfall,” Environment Canada said in a statement.

“Localized flooding in low-lying areas is possible.”

Global National’s Christina Stevens says the front yards of some homes are already under water.

Residents in both provinces have already been affected by overflowing riverbeds.

Several dozen homes and businesses were given evacuation notice on Saturday in the town of Beauceville south of Quebec City, where there was a kilometre-long ice jam along the Chaudiere river.

Police in Laval, north of Montreal, also warned of flooding. The city made sandbags available for pickup at several locations, explaining that a thick coat of ice from the long winter could make things worse.

Pierre Corbin, director of operations at Quebec’s Hydro Meteo, said his agency is monitoring several river systems across the province.

“It’s rare that you see many sectors affected like at the same time like this,” Corbin said.

In Ontario, the City of Belleville east of Toronto was put under a state of emergency and some homes were flooded by the rising Moira River.

Several homes saw water pour in as the river by more than 12 centimetres in recent days. Belleville said Sunday more than 70 homes had been sandbagged.

There were fears of even worse flooding in the days ahead.

Jennifer May-Anderson, a spokeswoman for the local environmental group Quinte Conservation, said rain overnight Saturday wasn’t heavy enough to trigger large-scale flooding and that the river hadn’t crested like it did six years ago.

Environment Canada wasn’t forecasting heavy rain upstream the Moira. May-Anderson said a rainfall warning in nearby Bancroft wouldn’t lead to flooding around Quinte.

She said the water level, though at a concerning high, should stay stable over the next few days if the amount of rain upstream remains light.