Some communities on floodwatch in Quebec's Saguenay region
Authorities are keeping an eye on a number of rivers at risk of flooding in the Upper Saint-Maurice and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean regions on Tuesday.
One of these rivers, the Ashuapmushuan river, was already overflowing Tuesday morning.
Girardville, a town on the north side of the lake, also experienced some minor flooding after a small creek spilled over onto some of its main streets.
The water levels of the rivers in the area are higher than normal because of heavy rainfall, according to Environment Canada meteorologist André Cantin.
Areas west of Lac Saint-Jean recorded up to 60 millimetres of rain in 12 hours, he said.
Cantin warned that could mean Saguenay will see some flooding in the coming hours or days.
"The rain that fell yesterday will arrive in populated areas later on today or tomorrow, it takes a bit of time before the rain goes down the river," Cantin said.
Sandra Belzil, the regional head of civil security for the region, said residents who live near the water should be careful and report any flooding to their municipality.
She said the melted snow, combined with the heavy rainfall, caused a faster increase in river levels than usual this year.
Flooding in Quebec City
Quebec City's Old Port area experienced some flooding Tuesday morning, as the St. Lawrence river overflowed onto Dalhousie Street.
Local authorities were alerted to the situation around 7 a.m., after two cars became stuck in the water. The area was temporarily closed to traffic, but city workers were able to reopen the street a couple of hours later.
The capital region had less precipitation than Saguenay, with some 10 to 20 millimeters falling overnight.
The flooding was caused by high tides and large volumes of water coming from the Saint-Maurice and Richelieu rivers into the St. Lawrence, according to Cantin.
The meteorologist expects the situation to improve by Wednesday.
"The tide should be quite high tomorrow morning also, but we don't expect much rain for the remaining hours in the Quebec area," he said.
"That's good news for the Lac-Saint-Jean region and the Mauricie region."
