Quebec officials on high alert for flooding with rain, spring thaw

MONTREAL — Rainfall in southwestern Quebec and warmer weather expected later this week have officials keeping close tabs on potential springtime flooding in different parts of the province, civil authorities said Monday.

The Hydro-Meteo monitoring service said water levels were particularly high in parts of the Eastern Townships, the Outaouais area near Ottawa and the region just south of Montreal.

Officials were also keeping tabs on Quebec City and the Beauce region southwest of the provincial capital. 

Environment Canada said between 25 and 40 millimetres of rain was expected to fall through Monday, tracing a route toward the Charlevoix region northeast of Quebec City.

Some people living in towns along the shores of the Chaudiere River left their homes as a preventive measure, as did some homeowners in Weedon, roughly 200 kilometres east of Montreal.

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Thomas Blanchet, a Quebec civil security spokesman, said water levels were already high in some places and the ground was already quite saturated because of rainfall in recent days.

Most areas of the province were either simply under surveillance or were not considered at high risk, but officials were criss-crossing the province to assess a situation that could change quickly, with 2017’s record-breaking flooding still on their minds.

At the peak of last year’s flooding, water seeped into 5,300 homes in 291 Quebec municipalities, forcing 4,000 people to leave their homes.

Blanchet said even an end to the rainfall will not mean an end to the risks — warmer weather will cause remaining snow to melt in parts of the province, leading to further rising waters in some places.

“It will be the melting of the snow that will maintain the high level of the river,” Blanchet said. “Then we’ll see what will happen with the forecast (later this week and the weekend).”

Blanchet said officials were asking citizens to remain vigilant.

In Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce, a 50-year-old died Thursday night in the flooded basement of his residence. The cause of death was not yet known.

The Canadian Press