Tornado touches down in Quebec's Montérégie region, damaging homes
CBC
A tornado touched down in Rigaud, Que., late Monday afternoon, causing some damage to homes.
Maxime Desharnais, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said the tornado touched down at around 5:30 p.m. Rigaud is about 70 kilometres west of Montreal, near the Ontario border.
The event was confirmed after video of the tornado was submitted to Environment Canada, said Desharnais. The footage shows a roof being blown from a house.
Geneviève Hamel, a spokesperson for the city of Rigaud, said three homes were damaged in the municipality. Quebec provincial police say no injuries have been reported yet.
Julie Lemieux, the mayor of nearby Très-Saint-Rédempteur, Que., said one house and another building in her town were heavily damaged. There have also been power outages there due to downed wires. There were no injuries, she said.
Pascale Monteseno owns Ferme de Pointe-Fortune with her husband in Pointe-Fortune, just north of Très-Saint-Rédempteur. Their barn and other structures were damaged.
It all happened in a matter of seconds, she said.
"I was doing the dishes and we saw a lot of wind for a second and it was really heavy. I saw the horses in the back freaking out, running in circles and then they went in the barn," she said.
"We looked out front, and saw things flying through the garden. Then my husband ran outside and he saw the roof of the barn was gone."
She said her kids were safe in the basement and nobody got hurt, and that the mayor stopped by as well as emergency responders. She said it was their first tornado.
"My kids are a bit freaked out right now, but they're OK," said Monteseno. "We're fine. Everybody is safe. So that's good. We're lucky nothing bad happened."
At this time, Environment Canada is unable to determine the strength of the tornado and further assessment is needed, Desharnais said, but it is not expected that the situation will worsen.
As the daytime heat, which fuels such weather events, starts to dissipate, the conditions should begin to improve, Desharnais said. The dropping temperatures will help mitigate the risk of further tornado activity, he said. Several hours before the tornado touched down, tornado warnings were downgraded to watches for upper Gatineau and Prescott and Russell United Counties.
Montreal has been under a severe thunderstorm watch Monday afternoon, with strong winds and rain blowing into the region. That watch covers much of southwestern Quebec to the Ontario border.
Aggressive patients and lack of security are making nurses feel unsafe in a rural Western Manitoba emergency union, says the Manitoba Nurses Union.
Saskatoon resident Delynne Bortis knew her commute to work Tuesday morning would be particularly difficult.
WARNING: This story contains details of abuse and intimate partner violence:
The amount of money it takes for people to earn a living wage has increased across the province, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.