Julie Murray
Julie Murray
MUNCIPALITY OF PONTIAC – A torrential rain on Canada Day led to a microburst in the Pontiac. Capable of bringing down airplanes, microbursts are columns of air that plunge down towards the earth at very high speeds. In Quyon, an area about two kilometres long next to the Ottawa River was hit by a microburst that descended at speeds of up to 170 to 180 km/h. The area had been under a tornado warning all afternoon.
The storm knocked down houses, cars, trailers and Hydro poles, leading to a loss of power in hundreds of residences in the Pontiac. It was also a traumatic event for many people; realtor Kathy Matechuk told the Pontiac Journal, “It took down trees, splitting them right down the middle. The wind was pushing down and it split the trees wide open. There was no way to tell what direction the wind was going; things were flying in all directions. My mother’s neighbour had his exterior stairs ripped right out. It took down the Hydro lines so residents couldn’t get to each other [because of the fear of electrocution]. There were trees knocked over on buildings and cars; even my dad’s Cadillac had a tree blown onto it. It was insane devastation, short-lived, but unbelievable.”
MRC des Collines police and firefighters had to close off sections of Kennedy Road in Luskville and Dion Road in Quyon because of downed trees. Another burst had knocked down trees, damaging a sugar bush, along Highway 148 not far from the sink hole that diverted traffic for three days.
