Teen injured, tens of thousands without power after strong storms rip through Quebec
Teenager in critical condition after being trapped under fallen tree
A series of thunderstorms that swept through southern Quebec on Tuesday evening left a teenage boy in critical condition in Montreal and thousands without power across the province.
The teenager was injured after being pinned under a tree that collapsed during the storm on Grande-Allée Boulevard in Montreal's Ahuntsic neighbourhood.
Urgences-santé spokesperson, Benjamin Dansereaux, said firefighters worked with paramedics to rescue the boy from under the branches.
He was rushed to hospital in life-threatening condition, he said.
As the storms made their way across the province, strong winds knocked down branches and even utility poles in some areas, leaving thousands without power and closing down part of Highway 19 in Laval.
Eric Tomlinson, a warning preparedness meteorologist at Environment Canada, said the storms were a result of a cold front sweeping through the region.
In Montreal, wind speeds of between 87 km/h were recorded at Trudeau airport while in Saint-Hubert speeds as high as 110 km/hour were reported, Tomlinson said.
As of 2 p.m., on Wednesday, just under 44,000 homes and businesses were still in the dark, with Hydro-Québec saying the hardest hit regions were Montreal, Montérégie, Laurentians, Outaouais, and Lanaudière.
On its website, the power utility said gusts of wind, sometimes reaching over 100 km/h, "caused significant damage to the network and several pieces of equipment need to be replaced."
At the height of the event, close to 144,000 Hydro-Quebec clients were without power.
More than 500 teams have been dispatched to restore power as quickly as possible.
Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital loses power during storm
In Montreal, the storm hit at around 8 p.m., causing major damage at Montreal's Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital.
Dr. Marc Brosseau, a lung specialist at the hospital, described the evening as chaotic.
He said nurses were injured by broken glass after some windows were blown out.
"We had major problems," he said, adding that backup generators didn't work, the intensive-care unit was in the dark and no one was able to carry out surgeries in the operating rooms.
He said, however, that no patients were directly affected by the outage or the damage.
In a statement to CBC News, the local health authority, CIUSSS de l'Est-de-l'Île-de-Montréal, said power at the hospital has been restored, but surgeries were cancelled for the day due to instability issues with the generator-based backup system.
Montreal fire department logs 190 calls
It was a busy night for Montreal firefighters as well.
According to Émilie Barbeau-Charlebois, section chief for the Service de sécurité incendie de Montréal, there were 190 emergency calls logged between 7:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m.
Most of the calls were to report fallen branches that landed on homes, cars and electric wires, and two were related to building fires.
During a news conference on Wednesday, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante spoke of storm cleanup efforts and urged residents to call 311 if they notice any broken branches dangling from trees.
She said city crews would be sent to deal with the issue.
Plante also spoke of the injured teen and while not giving an update on his health status, said he was being well taken care of in hospital.
Microburst may have hit Montreal
Tomlinson said the sectors that were the most impacted in Montreal, in terms of the strongest winds, were the northern end of the city in Ahuntsic, Rosemont, and then as the storm pushed through, Saint-Hubert on the South Shore.
An investigation is underway to determine whether a microburst or a tornado may have touched down in the city.
"At the moment it looks like it was more of a case of a microburst," Tomlinson said.
The main difference, he said, is that a tornado is associated with a column of air that is rotating upwards, while a microburst is a column of air that comes down very fast and spreads out.
The kind of damage caused, however, can be similar.
Tomlinson warned Tuesday's storm was likely the first major event for thunderstorms this season, and with more to come, it's important to be prepared.
"Usually when we send out thunderstorm watches, what we would advise people to do is just to have a plan in mind in terms of where they can take shelter when a severe thunderstorm warning is issued."
Written by Annabelle Olivier with files from Lauren McCallum, Antoni Nerestant and Radio-Canada