Flooding forces Montreal to declare state of emergency, other Atlantic provinces under threat

The situation will be re-evaluated after a 48-hour period, media reports said.

The Mayor said the order gives the city the power to more effectively and quickly address the situation.

There will be mandatory evacuations in some areas, Coderre added.

While addressing the press conference the mayor Coderre said, "The most important thing for me is to help the people, help the citizens. I have signed the official papers, so for 48 hours, chief of Montreal Department Bruno Lachance will have all the extraordinary powers to take the decision for resources.”

The decree also grants the city the power to order mandatory evacuations.

“If we need to evacuate, it’s an order to evacuate,” Coderre added.

The affected boroughs include, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, L’Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève, Pierrefonds-Roxboro, as well as the town of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, and Senneville.

Around 200 residents have been evacuated from their homes.

The flooding has also forced Sacré-Coeur Hospital in Ahuntsic to transfer patients to a mental health hospital in Rivières-des-Prairies.

Flooding has forced Transports Québec close several roads on Sunday night — including the Galipeault Bridge, a major artery that connects Île-Perrot to the island of Montreal — due to water accumulation.

Montreal is not the only municipality to have declared a state of emergency.

The flood-stricken town of Rigaud, in Quebec ordered the mandatory evacuation of residents in affected areas after declaring its second state of emergency in recent weeks.

Nation’s Capital Ottawa and its adjacent city Gatineau in Quebec are also grappling with the flood waters.

Canadian military announced on Sunday it is adding more troops across the hardest hit regions of Quebec  that are flooded.

Around 80 and 100 Canadian military personnel have already been deployed Sunday morning to the Outoauais, including Gatineau, to assist with relief efforts. 

The City of Ottawa said it has activated its emergency operations in respond to what it described as a "historic flood", but a state of emergency has not been declared.

According to a media release issued Sunday afternoon, the city said it is responding to the crisis and has received sandbags and other assistance from the province.

In the latest report released this afternoon, it  said that 200 homes have been impacted by flooding and 100 of them have been evacuated.

The heavily affected areas in Ottawa includes Britannia, Cumberland, Constance Bay, Dunrobin, Fitzroy Harbour, and MacLarens landing.

Canada's Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said 1,200 soldiers will be deployed by the end of Sunday, up from the 400 soldiers that were announced a day earlier.

The situation in Ontario on the whole had become stable except for some local circumstances since Sunday morning.

Rob Kuhn, an Environment Canada meteorologist based in Toronto, said on Sunday that eastern Ontario had seen the most rainfall in the province.

He added that upward of 80 millimeters of rain fell between Friday and Sunday morning.

Atlantic Canada and parts of New Brunswick recorded more than 150 millimeters of rain fall after a nearly 36-hour non-stop rain that left some areas with flooded roads and wet basements, the CBC News quoted New Brunswick Emergency Measures Organization as saying.

Environment Canada issued rainfall warnings for New Brunswick, and another burst of rain has been forecasted in southern New Brunswick on Monday.

Meanwhile, western Nova Scotia is expected to receive about 50 millimeters of rain over this weekend.

Since the storm effect moves north, residents of Labrador should expect around 25 mm, starting later in the weekend, according to an Environment Canada office report in Charlottetown.

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)

Photo Source : Canadian Press/ Graham Hughes