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Evacuation camps for Quebec flood victims

Broadcast Date: July 22, 1996

Stranded residents of Grande Baie, Que. wait for Canadian Forces helicopters to airlift them to evacuation camps at CFB Bagotville. They have no electricity and are living off of temporary water and food supplies. Two days ago, flash flooding began after a weather comma brought on a torrential rainstorm. Some people have lost their homes. Major Pierre Bettez, one of the Canadian Forces personnel performing airlifts, fled his house at 6:50 a.m. with a razor and toothpaste while the floodwaters quickly rose.

If the worst damage he'll have to endure is a flooded basement, he says he'll be one of the lucky ones. Bettez says the floodwaters have decreased eight feet in some places. But as he flies over Jonquière he spots overflowing dams with water rushing over the tops and out the sides.

Evacuation camps for Quebec flood victims

• A weather comma (a.k.a. comma tail) is a meteorological term for a hurricane shaped like a comma.
• The one that brought torrential rains to the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region picked up masses of water from the North Atlantic Ocean, formed over the middle of the continent and transformed into four small hurricanes. It then travelled north and swooped down over Quebec. The eye of the storm centred on the Saguenay region.

Evacuation camps for Quebec flood victims

Medium: Radio

Program: As It Happens

Broadcast Date: July 22, 1996

Guest(s): Pierre Bettez

Host: Lorna Jackson
Interviewer: Jim Nunn

Duration: 6:57

Last updated:
July 30, 2009