Flood of Montreal

The Déluge of Montreal arrived on July 14th 1987. After several days of Heat wave, three lines of storms leave more than 100 millimetres of rain in two hours on the center of Montreal.

Consequences

The pouring rain affects all the island of Montreal, since the western part of the island with 57,8 mm with the airport of Dorval (now airport Pierre-Elliott Trudeau), to the point is with 56 mm with River-of-Meadows (source Environnement Canada). But the most touched sectors find around the Mount-Royal with 100 to 103 mm at the official stations and even a nonofficial station bringing back 180 mm of accumulations.

The sewerage system of Montreal can absorb only 36 millimetres of rain per hour. As Gaston Moreau mentions it, directing assistant of public works of the town of Montreal: “ such an intensity of rain returns only once every ten years, say calculations of the experts. And design of our sewerage system, as that of the majority of the big cities of North America was conceived to face this kind of precipitation. Not more. One would have needed a sewerage system able to face a rain whose recurrence is once every 50 years. ”

The lightning and of the damage by the wind produce electric breakdowns on a good part of the island. The electric pumps, helping with the drainage of the low parts of the road system, are put out-service what worsens the problem of floods. All this water then descends the slopes and a good part finds herself in the highway in ditch Décarie. The latter becomes, the one afternoon space, a true river. Besides this flood involves the drowning of a motorist and several tens of people had to be survivors of their vehicle by the firemen. Several truck-drivers also helped to help motorists thanks to their trucks which were sufficiently high to cross the floods.

Nearly 350.000 citizens are private of electricity. Approximately 50.000 dwellings are flooded, causing damage evaluated with more than 220 million dollars (of 1987). Lastly, circulation was paralyzed during several hours, the majority of the streets and highways on the island being blocked in many places by the floods. The services of subway, of suburban trains and bus of Montreal were stopped for the same reason.

External bond

Report of Radio-Canada the day of July 14th, 1987

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