Quebec is experiencing an “extraordinarily troublesome” interval of climate-related disasters, Public Safety Minister François Bonnardel mentioned Wednesday, as residents throughout a number of areas cleaned up from one other episode of extreme rainfall.
Bonnardel spoke to reporters from Ste-Julienne, Que., a small neighborhood 55 kilometres north of Montreal that was certainly one of many Quebec municipalities hit by torrential rain final week. It was his first press convention since Friday’s rainfall, and got here following a gathering with mayors from the area.
Bonnardel mentioned the state of affairs has improved in current days, however 34 municipalities and 53 roads are nonetheless affected by the record-breaking rainfall. “I do know it’s extraordinarily exhausting for a lot of residents who’ve misplaced the whole lot and who need to resort to their personal insurance coverage,” he mentioned.
The minister mentioned Quebec has suffered from a variety of excessive climate occasions within the final a number of years, together with intense spring flooding in 2017 and 2019 and forest fires final summer time.
“We’re experiencing extraordinarily troublesome climatic conditions,” he mentioned. “I’m telling those who we sympathize, we’re with them.”
Bonnardel pointed to the Quebec authorities’s catastrophe monetary help program, which has been made out there to 123 communities affected by the rainfall. As of Tuesday 700 individuals had accomplished a web based type to use for funds, he mentioned.
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Bonnardel additionally referred to as on insurance coverage firms to “be current” for his or her clients. “Reply, add further employees, as a result of individuals want solutions, want to speak to somebody,” he mentioned.
On Wednesday, insurance coverage firm Beneva in contrast the state of affairs to the ice storm of 1998, when there was a spike within the variety of insurance coverage claims. In a press release Monday, a spokesperson for Desjardins mentioned 1000’s of individuals insured with the corporate had been reporting injury to houses and vehicles.
“This isn’t one thing we regularly see by way of quantity,” Véronique Breton mentioned in an e-mail assertion. “It’s an distinctive state of affairs.”
The Quebec authorities has put aside greater than $5.6 billion for municipalities to enhance their infrastructure and defend in opposition to financial institution erosion, Bonnardel instructed reporters. “We’re placing in vital quantities of cash,” he mentioned. “Now it’s additionally as much as the municipalities to behave and gather these quantities.”
The remnants of tropical storm Debby triggered main injury in Quebec, flooding 1000’s of houses and washing out roads. Greater than 550,000 clients misplaced energy through the peak of the storm Friday night, which dumped as much as 200 millimetres of rain in a 24-hour interval.
The worst-hit areas embrace the Laurentians, Lanaudière, Mauricie and Centre-du-Québec, the place a number of landslides have been reported.
In June, one other episode of torrential rain in Lanaudière washed out roads and remoted individuals of their houses after 120 mm of rain fell over 36 hours.
— With information from Maura Forrest in Montreal.
Characteristic picture: Vehicles drive slowly by way of flooded streets in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue on the Island of Montreal after heavy rains hit the realm on Friday, August 9, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter McCabe
