A torrent of heavy rain due to remnants of Hurricane Beryl dumped up to 100 millimetres of precipitation on some neighbourhoods in Montreal Wednesday.
According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, different areas of the city received between 50 and 100 millimetres of rain during the passage of the system as of 9 p.m.
The heavy rain caused numerous sewer backups and flooding under overpasses. Portions of several highways also had to be closed due to water accumulation, including the Décarie Expressway, which was closed for over an hour.
Transports Québec closed the Décarie with motorists stranded in their cars and in their trucks. Its security vehicles were able to remove all stranded motorists by guiding them to the Jean-Talon exit.
The weather also knocked out the lights for thousands of Hydro-Québec customers in the Montreal and Montérégie regions. As of Thursday morning, almost 5,600 customers were still in the dark.
A spokesperson for the public utility says it voluntarily interrupted service for those customers at the request of provincial security officials due to the heavy rain, stressing that the outages are not due to equipment failure.
On July 14,1987, 102.2 mm of rain drenched the city, flooding the city’s arterial highway. The improvements made to the expressway since have certainly helped, but they’re not enough to prevent significant flooding when the city is hit by major storms.