Prescott-Russell and much of Argenteuil made it through an afternoon of severe weather on Thursday, July 13 better than areas to the west and east.
That afternoon, tornadoes were confirmed by Environment and Climate Change Canada in both the Ottawa suburb of Barrhaven, and in Mirabel, north of Montréal. Funnel clouds were also reported in other areas around Ottawa and Montréal.
Storm severity and damage in Prescott-Russell on Thursday was minor in comparison to what happened around the two cities. Tornado watches and warnings were in effect for all of Prescott-Russell and low, dark clouds certainly looked threatening at times. In Vankleek Hill, it rained heavily, accompanied by a thunderstorm and moderate winds for around 30 minutes. Late Thursday afternoon, Hydro One reported about 300 customers without electricity in Prescott and Russell counties, mostly in The Nation Municipality and the City of Clarence-Rockland. Line and forestry crews were working Thursday afternoon to remove fallen trees and rebuild damaged lines. The Hydro One outage map
showed most of the customers without service were in the area between Riceville and St-Bernardin. Along County Road 10 near Fenaghvale, a tree had fallen on a power line and caused it to fall to the ground. The utility expected power to be restored to all customers by 10:30 p.m. Thursday. Some crops in the area had also been flattened due to wind and rain.
In Lachute, tree damage was reported at the protestant cemetery.
Hydro-Québec had reported power outages in Lachute and Saint-André-d’Argenteuil on Thursday afternoon, but service had been restored
to those customers by the evening and only two minor outages in Brownsburg-Chatham and Wentworth remained as of late Thursday night.
Photos by James Morgan
Submitted photos
