Violent thunderstorms and robust winds swept throughout Quebec Thursday evening amid the continued warmth wave, knocking out energy to hundreds and leaving a path of injury.
One of many exhausting hit areas – L’Assomption, the place an enormous tent collapsed.
“I believe to myself, I might have died,” mentioned 12-year-old Charles Plouffe.
The kid had handed below a big tent moments earlier than it was violently tossed into the air and collapsed into close by bushes and powerlines. It had been erected for the North Shore Agricultural present, which completed a number of days earlier than the storm. Fortunately Plouffe was not injured.
“My half brother and I had been within the park slightly additional away once we began to listen to thunder, so we hurried dwelling,” defined Plouffe. “We started to really feel the wind – and the leaves and rocks had been flying into our faces. After we acquired close to the tent, I handed beneath it with my half brother subsequent to me, then 20 seconds later it collapsed.”
His mom, Martine Desgroseilliers, was shaken by the occasions.
“I used to be beginning to get nervous and I hadn’t even made it to the nook of the road to search for the boys when a wall of rain actually got here crashing down. It acquired very, very darkish, with sturdy winds, and that’s once I noticed them seem – it was so thick that I used to be struggling to make them out by means of the rain, though they had been solely about six ft away from me,” mentioned Desgroseilliers.
She added that poles from the tent landed close to her automotive and so they had been with out electrical energy for a lot of the day on Friday. “I’ve by no means seen winds as sturdy as that. We might hear the crackling of bushes as they fell – on the time, it was fairly a sight.”
Crews seen engaged on tent that collapsed in the course of the storm in L’Assomption seen on July 3, 2026 (Submitted: Carl Jean-Bart)
200 Hydro-Québec groups deployed
Throughout the province, over 137, 000 prospects had been at the hours of darkness round 9 p.m. Thursday, based on Hydro-Québec spokesperson Audrey St-Pierre – the peak of the outages. As of two p.m. on Friday there have been lower than 22,000 with out energy throughout the province.
She mentioned that 200 groups had been working to place prospects again on the grid – and reminded the general public to keep away from any downed traces and speak to emergency companies in the event that they encounter them.
“We don’t need individuals to get electrocuted,” added St-Pierre. “Preserve 10 meters away from the traces on the bottom and ensure to not take away branches which have fallen onto a downed wire.”
In Blainville’s Fontainebleau neighbourhood, the cleanup was in full swing Friday morning after residents cleared up fallen bushes and particles.
Blainville residents clearing particles after earlier evening’s storm, photograph taken on July 3, 2026 (Submitted by: Mike Varga)
Blainville storm cleanup, photograph taken on July 3, 2026 (Submitted by: Mike Varga)
A road in Blainville seen closed off resulting from fallen tree from earlier evening’s storm, photograph taken on July 3, 2026 (Submitted by: Mike Varga)
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