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Confirmed by Environment Canada at around 7:30pm on Monday, it was indeed a tornado that struck Rigaud, Très-Saint-Rédempteur and Pointe-Fortune early Monday evening.

“It's a miracle that no one was hurt,” Guillaume Roy, acting director of Rigaud's fire department, told Néomédia.

At 5:31 p.m. to be exact, the first call to emergency services was for a structure check on the main road in Très-Saint-Rédempteur. The first officer to arrive on the scene saw the damage: the roof of the residence was torn off, and century-old trees had been broken.

The owner, who was inside the residence, barely had time to take refuge in the basement with his dog.

Less than 10 minutes later, a second call was made, this time to Chemin du Petit-Brûlé in Rigaud. Three homes were damaged, as were a barn and two silos. One of the silos literally collapsed to the ground. 

The tornado is said to have crossed a corridor of almost 12 kilometers, also hitting Chemin du Petit-Brûlé in Rigaud and ending its run in Pointe-Fortune, via Chemin Saint-Thomas.

“On chemin du Petit-Brûlé, a two-by-four went through a residence. The wood destroyed the stove. It's a miracle no one was hurt.It all happened around suppertime. There could have been someone in front of the stove preparing the meal,” adds Mr. Roy with relief.

Néomédia visited the site on Tuesday to see the extent of the damage.“Within seconds, it was over.It was very powerful, very violent. In addition to the residence here, a few farm accessory buildings were hit a little further on, still on Route Principale. A lot of people rallied to help the victims, and that's where we see the importance of our civil protection agreement with the towns of Pincourt and Pointe-Fortune. As soon as the alert went out, our teams were ready to intervene,” said Julie Lemieux, mayor of Très-Saint-Rédempteur. 

“Citizens need to be aware of the importance of having a 72-hour kit at home. More than ever,” added the mayor.

At the time of Néomédia's visit on Tuesday, a number of people were on site, including Hydro-Québec crews who were busy repairing their installations in order to restore power as quickly as possible.