Montreal on alert as water levels could reach 2019 highs this weekend

The city of Montreal is warning that water levels could match those seen during the severe floods of 2017 and 2019 this weekend, but says it is prepared for the worst.

Water levels have risen in the lakes and rivers surrounding the region in recent days and forecasts call for them to continue climbing through Sunday.

“We’re monitoring the situation hour by hour,” Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada said Friday from the shore of the Rivière des Prairies in Ahuntsic-Cartierville. “We’re ready to react.”

The city has been implementing preventive measures since mid-March and raised its flooding alert to its highest level Thursday. As of Friday, officials weren’t aware of any flooded buildings or streets in the city.

Speaking alongside the mayor, Montreal Fire Chief Richard Liebmann said that while rain gave way to sunny skies on Friday, the department is also monitoring conditions upstream in the Outaouais region.

“Even though it’s nice and sunny and warm here, it doesn’t mean it’s not raining or snow melt isn’t happening more quickly upstream,” Liebmann said.

Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough mayor Jim Beis, the executive committee member responsible for security and prevention, noted the weather can also change quickly.

“Mother Nature is unpredictable,” Beis said. “The forecasts from three or four days ago were telling us something a little different than what we (now see) for the next few days.”

A special weather statement issued by Environment Canada Friday warned southern Quebec could receive an additional 15 to 25 millimetres of rain from Saturday night into Sunday.

“These showers could produce significant amounts of rain in some areas, while river levels are high and the ground is saturated,” the statement read. “All this rain should cause river levels to rise.”

Montreal has already distributed pumps and sandbags and built modular dikes in areas that are typically hardest hit, including sectors in Pierrefonds-Roxboro, L’Île-Bizard—Ste-Geneviève, and Ahuntsic-Cartierville.

Particular attention is also being paid to the bridge linking Île Bizard to Île Mercier, which is often the first to be shut down as levels rise. Water rescue teams will be on standby as of Saturday and the city said it won’t hesitate to shut the bridge if necessary.

“We’re not there yet, but it’s the kind of situation we’re keeping an eye on,” Martinez Ferrada said.

The 2017 spring floods — considered the worst disaster to hit Montreal since the 1998 ice storm — saw more than 430 homes flooded and some 1,100 residents displaced in the Montreal area.

The 2019 floods lasted longer but caused less damage locally, which the city attributes to lessons learned from 2017.

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