{"id":611232,"date":"2026-04-17T23:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/611232\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T23:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:43:11","slug":"montreal-says-city-is-ready-for-possible-flooding-as-river-levels-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/611232\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal says city is ‘ready’ for possible flooding as river levels rise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Montreal activated its Special Intervention Plan (PPI) this week as water levels rise along the Ottawa River and Rivi\u00e8re des Prairies, though officials say no flooding has been observed so far \u2013 and on Thursday, they pushed that to a level 3, the highest level.<\/p>\n

Despite the rising rivers, the city says there is currently no flooding on the ground. Residents in at-risk areas are being urged to stay informed through municipal alerts and local updates as conditions continue to evolve.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur role is to reassure the public and to demonstrate that we do everything humanly possible to protect the sectors and the well-being of our communities,\u201d said Jim Beis, who is responsible for security and prevention as part of Montreal\u2019s executive committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cSunday, they\u2019re announcing the water level to be at its highest this spring, which may lead us in Pierrefonds, for example, to have to close l\u2019Anse \u00e0 l\u2019Orme or and the Seneville bridge that connects Seneville to Pierrefonds, and there are other decisions that will have to be made when the time comes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"A barrier set up in Ahuntsic-Cartierville at the end of Notre-Dame-des-Anges Street \u2013 next to the Rivi\u00e8re des Prairies \u2013 to stop flooding in the residential area on April 17, 2026. (Gareth Madoc-Jones, CityNews) <\/p>\n

Preventive flood protection measures have already been deployed in several sectors, including Pierrefonds-Roxboro, L\u2019\u00cele-Bizard\u2013Sainte-Genevi\u00e8ve and Ahuntsic-Cartierville. These include temporary dikes, pumps, inflatable barriers and valve closures at key infrastructure points, with additional installations planned in the coming days.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking into what\u2019s happening upstream so to see what the impact will be here in our city, but also in the West Island and with other cities. So we are just ready to react and ready to prevent and help the citizens if they need to,\u201d said Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jim Beis (left), responsible for security and prevention with Montreal\u2019s Executive Committee and also the borough mayor of Pierrefonds Roxboro, Soraya Martinez Ferrada (middle), Mayor of Montreal, Effie Giannou (right), City Councillor for the Bordeaux-Cartierville, at a press conference in Ahuntsic-Cartierville on April 17, 2026. (Gareth Madoc-Jones, CityNews) <\/p>\n

In Pierrefonds-Roxboro, barriers and pumping systems have been installed or are being set up along multiple streets and near the filtration plant, while similar protections are in place around Parc Terrasse-Sacr\u00e9-C\u0153ur in L\u2019\u00cele-Bizard\u2013Sainte-Genevi\u00e8ve. Officials say further measures remain on standby depending on water levels.<\/p>\n

Flows at Carillon on the Ottawa River were measured at about 6,100 m\u00b3\/s Friday morning, with forecasts calling for a potential peak near 7,050 m\u00b3\/s on April 18. The Rivi\u00e8re des Prairies is also running high at roughly 2,400 m\u00b3\/s and continuing to increase.<\/p>\n

City officials say they are maintaining close monitoring of river conditions and possible impacts along shorelines, including checking for encampments in vulnerable riverside areas. No injuries or major incidents have been reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you arrive here, it\u2019s really obvious because there\u2019s a marker that\u2019s in place all year round, so you can really see the difference,\u201d said Janie Hall\u00e9-Bolduc, an Ahunstic-Cartierville resident living near Rivi\u00e8re des Prairies.<\/p>\n

Maurice Van Themsche, another Ahuntsic-Cartierville resident living near Rivi\u00e8re des Prairies, said, \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s going to be a big issue, I mean, and I know that the city has a lot of leeway, you know, for the next step, so I\u2019m not that nervous at all. I should maybe, but I\u2019m not.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Pierrefonds, modular plastic dams are now being used to block water from the Rivi\u00e8re des Prairies as an alternative to sandbags.<\/p>\n

\"\"A barrier set up in Ahuntsic-Cartierville at the end of Notre-Dame-des-Anges Street \u2013 next to the Rivi\u00e8re des Prairies \u2013 to stop flooding in the residential area on April 17, 2026. (Gareth Madoc-Jones, CityNews) <\/p>\n

\u201cWell I\u2019m thinking it\u2019s going to go up because just since yesterday it went up a couple of inches for sure maybe a foot and now with that wall there there\u2019s about four feet of leeway so that means that we\u2019re okay I\u2019m confident that it won\u2019t go over the wall for sure it\u2019ll stay on that because in 2017 it was awful we had water up to the house so it was just different now so they keep it closer to the river,\u201d said Eric Sauv\u00e9, a Pierrefonds resident living near Rivi\u00e8re des Prairies.<\/p>\n

Beis says, \u201cBecause the water level is projected on Sunday to be at that level, we know that the first point of impact will be the western portion, which now we\u2019ve sealed off, and now we can move eastward to continue our interventions accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Useful links:<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\tA barrier set up in Ahuntsic-Cartierville at the end of Notre-Dame-des-Anges Street – next to the Rivi\u00e8re des Prairies – to stop flooding in the residential area on April 17, 2026. (Gareth Madoc-Jones, CityNews) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Montreal activated its Special Intervention Plan (PPI) this week as water levels rise along the Ottawa River and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-611232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}