HUNTINGDON – Officials are nervously watching waves of rain early this week as they pass over southern Quebec.
“We’re going to be looking at the rivers, because there will be precipitation in the next few days,” said Thomas Blanchet, of Quebec Public Safety. “We’re looking at Huntingdon, Chaudieres-Appalaches, Monteregie, because all the rivers are really high.”
The rivers in those areas are swollen due to the seasonal spring melt coupled with rain. A late winter has also meant that rivers are jammed with ice and overflowing at surprising intervals. With a weather system moving in, Environment Canada predicts up to 45 mm of rain could fall in the next 48 hours.
“This is the moisture coming from the southern US,” said Bruno Marquis, a meteorologist with Environment Canada. “It’s time to get that moisture being pumped further north.”
READ MORE: Southern Quebec under flood watch
Huntingdon, about an hour southwest of Montreal, already got a hint of what may be on offer when rains caused the Chateauguay River to rise, flooding a few important streets.
“When I came home last night there was about an inch and a half of water on the road,” said Charles Patenaude, a resident who uses his bicycle to get around.
Huntingdon’s struggles with flooding are routine enough that one longtime resident, Domenic Durenceau, joked that every spring he wakes up realizing he owns waterfront property.
“When I built it, I didn’t build a basement,” he laughed, pointing to his one-level house a few metres from the swollen river.
Comments