Montreal Experienced Violent Thunderstorm 6/10/08 (8th civic inside/ 56k nono)

[modoko]

Catherine Wilton and Max Harrold, Montreal Gazette
Published: Tuesday, June 10

MONTREAL - A violent, fast-moving thunderstorm roared across Montreal and the South Shore yesterday afternoon, downing power lines, toppling trees and tipping trucks over on the Champlain Bridge.
Gusting winds and heavy rain knocked out power to 63,000 Hydro-Québec customers on the island of Montreal and delayed flights from Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.
At 10 last night, 8,100 households on the island were still without power.







With the Champlain Bridge closed in both directions for about three hours until 5:30 p.m., traffic on Highway 20 was backed up for kilometres at one point on the South Shore.

In Montreal, detoured motorists and city buses were tied up in the clogged streets. The métro's Yellow Line was packed with commuters preferring to leave their cars in town and avoid the bridge.

Officials reopened the bridge after righting seven tractor-trailer trucks and a large cube truck. An 18-wheeler had nearly toppled over into the St. Lawrence River.

One truck driver suffered a minor arm injury, the Sûreté du Québec said.
The sudden storm darkened skies shortly after 2 p.m., causing winds of up to 110 kilometres an hour in places.

Longueuil police received about 350 reports of fallen trees, downed power lines and ripped-off roof parts, but no serious injuries.

In Montreal, firefighters rushed to skyscrapers on McGill College Ave. and Metcalfe St. after reports of window washers dangling from their platforms. There was no one on the platforms when they arrived and no reported injury.

Sitting in his car in the Réno-Dépôt store parking lot on St. Jacques St. W., Joel Ceausu saw first hand the effects of the strong winds.
"I saw this plank about five-feet long just tumble in the air, careening across the parking lot into a van," he said.
"Bam! It hit the windshield and just shattered it," said Ceausu, 43, a freelance writer. No one was in the van.
Environment Canada had issued a severe weather warning before the storm, so the conditions weren't a total surprise.
"We got rain, but the wind was more of a factor," said René Héroux of Environment Canada.
"I even heard there was hail the size of baseballs," he said.
"When we have a severe warning, we expect high winds, hail and torrential rain."

Commuter trains on the Dorion-Rigaud, Blainville, Mont St. Hillaire and Delson-Candiac lines were between five and 30 minutes late during the evening commute as train operators had to manually switch tracks because of downed power lines.

The problem was expected to be fixed by this morning's commute, however.
At Trudeau airport, two flights were diverted elsewhere and 10 others were delayed from taking off or landing.

Generators kicked in during a power outage that lasted about 45 minutes, said Jacqueline Richard, a spokesperson for Aéroports de Montréal.
Normal airport operations resumed by 4 p.m., she said.

Héroux said the storm was the result of instability caused by clashing fronts of hot and cold air in the atmosphere.

[dentrecords]

that's absolutely insane with that truck.. if that had blown a bit more it would have carried him off the bridge... only to fall into the st-lawrence... wow...

[nvez]

Yeah, that was scary, hoping something like that won't happen again!

[illusionstwice]

YUEah last night was scary around here too. It was clear as day, then I made a turn onto another road and saw the ugly black cloud. i had my roof open, and when i went to close it, it would close half way..and then re-open. The wind was gusting so much the sunroof safety feature kicked in as if something was in the way

[truflip]

That looks scary!

[PIX111]

Thank god I have indoor parking....

[Mikey6p]

hybrid wheels on a coupe?

[truflip]

It's an 08 model- DX-G to be exact.

[Cheungman]

Originally Posted by Mikey6p

hybrid wheels on a coupe?

haha i knew someone would point that out

but this storm was crazy there were many tornado watches all over the gta.

[wing_gundam]

crazy!

[Whocares05050]

.. and i though the weather i got in florida was crazy!

[phatmax_666]

Originally Posted by truflip

It's an 08 model- DX-G to be exact.

Yep Dx-G models include those ugly hybrid mag ! On the coupe or on the sedan !!! My friend and his brother both got those one coupe on the other sedan and they both got those fugly wheels !!!