Firefighters remove a manhole cover following a watermain break on a street in Montreal, Friday, August 16, 2024, causing flooding in several streets of the area. Cleanup is underway after a major water main break near Montreal's Jacques Cartier Bridge flooded dozens of buildings on Friday and left nearly 150,000 people under a boil-water advisory. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
MONTREAL – Cleanup is underway after a major water main break near Montreal’s Jacques Cartier Bridge flooded dozens of buildings on Friday and left some 150,000 homes under a boil-water advisory.
The city says all streets affected by the break have reopened to traffic, and an extra garbage pickup was being organized to collect the debris from flooded homes and businesses.
Much of the city’s northeast remains under a preventative boil-water advisory after the rupture in the large underground water main created a drop in pressure.
Witnesses described the break as a “wall of water” that shot several metres into the air like a geyser at around 6 a.m. on Friday, forcing firefighters to ask nearby residents to evacuate due to risk of flooding.
City spokesman Philippe Sabourin says it will take several weeks to obtain the necessary equipment to repair the nearly two-metre wide pipe that burst and gushed water for several hours into streets, intersections and people’s basements.
About 14,000 Hydro-Quebec clients were without electricity on Friday after power to the area was cut, but the utility’s outage map suggested that number was down to just over 300 as of early Saturday afternoon.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 17, 2024.
