climate

Quebec City, Lévis in cleanup mode after flooding

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

Photos by Cassandra Kerwin, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

cassandra@qctonline.com

Residents and business owners around the region are still in cleanup mode after close to 100 millimetres of rain fell in some areas of Quebec City and Lévis on July 17 and 18.

Environment Canada meteorologist Steven Flisfeder described the weather event as a succession of slow-moving summer storms which slammed parts of the city over the course of several hours. “Every storm is different. A run-of-the-mill summer storm would have a downpour over the course of 30 to 60 minutes, and then it would be over, but here we ran into a situation where it’s one after the other,” he told the QCT. The Lévis suburb of Charny received 93 millimetres of rain in a single day, and 87 millimetres were measured in Sainte-Foy.

The hardest-hit area was along Chemin du Foulon, in Sillery, where about 20 people were forced to evacuate, and placed in temporary housing by the Red Cross. Allison McCan, who lives in the neighbourhood, told Radio-Canada she and her neighbours were “in the muck as far as it goes.” Along Rue Champlain, near Cap-Blanc, more than 100 people had to temporarily leave their homes due to water infiltration. By Friday afternoon, all evacuees were able to return to their homes.

Chemin du Foulon was closed between Côte de Sillery and Côte à Gignac until Friday. Avenue Belvedère remained closed from Chemin Sainte-Foy to Côte de la Pente-Douce as of press time on Monday; police are asking cyclists who normally use the Belvedère bike path to detour via Ave. Chouinard. The Escalier du Cap-Blanc, threatened by erosion, remains closed until further notice. Much of the region was without power at the height of the storm, although power has since been fully restored, according to the Hydro-Québec outage tracker.

The city did not hold a press briefing on the storm or its aftermath, but released several statements over the course of the storm. City spokesperson François Moisan said a crisis response unit had been put in place with representatives from the city and emergency services, and plans were made to house evacuees in community centres – plans that ultimately weren’t necessary.

“As soon as the crisis unit was activated, all municipal departments involved swung into action to limit the impact on the population and provide assistance to affected residents and businesses,” said Mayor Bruno Marchand in a state- ment. “I would obviously like to thank the city’s teams for their remarkable work. I am thinking, among others, of the firefighters, police officers and municipal employees, particularly those from the Bureau de la sécurité civile, des transports et des travaux publics, who were deployed to the field at full speed and who were already working late yesterday to clear and clean the streets where traffic had to be restricted. Our priority in the coming days remains supporting citizens and restoring damaged streets and infrastructure.”

“As soon as the first alerts were received, we activated our public safety plan. Our teams were dispatched to ensure the safety of citizens and limit the impacts. We have the resources and teams necessary to respond to this type of situation and adjust quickly,” said Jean-Sébastien Gagnon, public safety co-ordinator at the Ville de Lévis.

Small businesses in Vieux-Québec were still in cleanup mode as the QCT went to press Monday evening. “The flooding had a significant impact on many businesses in Old Quebec. Businesses with basements and semi-basements experienced significant water accumulation. Some streets experience chronic sewer backups during heavy rainfall, particularly on Saint-Louis Street, where significant damage occurred,” said Xavier Bernier-Prévost, director general of the SDC Vieux-Québec, the area’s small business owners’ association.

A memorable downpour

Several longtime city residents told the QCT they couldn’t remember a downpour as heavy as the one on Thursday in such a short period, at least not in downtown Quebec City. “We’ve had heavy rainstorms before – the one that comes to mind right away was in 2004 when the Lorette River overflowed – but rain this heavy in this short a time, I personally have not seen anything like that in Upper Town,” said Moisan, who has worked for the city for more than 30 years.

Marchand, in a later statement on his personal Facebook page, said the experience showed the importance of investing to improve climate resilience. “As we can see, extreme weather conditions are increasing, intensifying, and changing with each season. We don’t know where they will strike next, but we must be prepared. This is why we have set up a financial reserve to adapt our infrastructure, and also why all of Quebec’s cities are calling for increased funding from the governments of Quebec and Canada to make our infrastructure more resilient to climate hazards,” he wrote. “With the right investments and technologies, we can at least mitigate the effects on citizens – and the associated costs.”