Rain, spring thaw triggers flooding in Quebec

Rain and warm weather has led to flooding in some areas of Quebecand has authorities closely monitoring water levels across the province.

The Public Security Ministry's website shows 24 areas where minor or medium-level flooding is occurring, mainly in the Eastern Townships, the Beauceand Quebec City.

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In Weedon, about 200 kilometres east of Montreal, 500 homes on streets threatened by water levels received precautionary evacuation notices on Sunday.

Mayor Richard Tanguay said about 12 people are staying at a city-run emergency centre that has been opened.

InLvis, south of Quebec City, residents of Oscar-Carrier,Marcel-Rousseland de la Boucle streets were being asked to leave their homes Monday morning as a precaution.

GatanDrouin, with theLvisfire service, said Monday morning that30-some properties had been evacuated as a precaution around 5 a.m., and a dozen people were taken in by the Red Cross.

"Unfortunately, the weather forecast doesn't help us much. We are expecting more rain," said Drouin.

He saidthe rapid water level increase had stopped, leaving authorities hopeful aboutgetting the situation under control later in the day. However, he didn't rule out the possibility of more evacuations.

Drouin saidLvishad invested in infrastructure over the past couple years and has four cameras monitoring water levels at various key locations.

Lac Louisein the Eastern Townships, the Famine and Chaudire riversin the Beauceand the Rivire Saint-Charlesin Quebec City are already flooding, and water levels are expected to rise there.

Closer to Montreal, some streets in the western part of Laval and in Terrebonne are also seeing minor flooding as water from the Mille les River spills its banks.

The Lake of Two Mountains near Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue is under surveillance.

The rain and snow melt have already led to flooding in some homes and forced some evacuations in the Beauce and the Gasp.

"With all the rain that we got since Friday, the land is saturated, so the water is directly going to the river," said ThomasBlanchet, the spokesperson for Quebec's Public Security Ministry.

Blanchetsaidrivers are flooding later this year because cooler weather into the springallowed much of the snow to meltor evaporate.