The river Sainte-Anne, which crosses Saint-Raymond in Portneuf, came out of its bed in early January due to the rains of the last few hours combined with milder temperatures.
Local authorities are closely monitoring the situation while roads have had to be closed to traffic.
“What is happening is that at about 5-10 kilometers the ice sheet has broken up and is starting to sink towards the city centre. Here we are about a kilometer from the city center, it has stabilized here […]. We raised the alert to everyone to say there is a risk of flooding,” Saint-Raymond Mayor Claude Duplain said in an interview with LCN.
The situation is currently limited to a few overflows along the rows.
“Currently there are no buildings that are flooded. We have the row that’s flooded,” he explained.
Although the community is used to spring floods, the January flood presents some challenges.
“In January we are in the first. We saw that more with the mild periods of December. At this time in January it is rather rare […]. Our employees are strategically located,” added Mr. Duplain.
The city of Saint-Raymond had just recovered from the effects of last week’s winter storm when Hydro-Québec’s customers were without power for a week.