Small lakeside community near Rawdon trapped for days after historic storm

Residents of Lac-Claude stranded after storm Residents of Lac-Claude were stranded for close to three days, after the remnants of tropical storm Debby hit Montreal.

Friday’s storm washed away the only road residents from the community of Lac-Claude near Rawdon had, leaving them trapped for nearly three days.

“It had rained ridiculously hard for almost two days and the lake rose quite a bit. My dock was underwater. Docs were floating all over the place. And I thought, ‘What the hell! How are we going to get out of here?’” Christiane Hermanns, a resident of Lac-Claude, said in an interview.

Hermanns was one of a hundred residents stranded.

The only way the community had to get much-needed supplies like medicine and baby formula over the river was a pedal boat.

“It was scary. It was scary,” she said.

Fortunately for residents, the town of Rawdon built a temporary dirt road through private property, reconnecting the community of mostly seniors with the outside world.

“It’s not a real road but it’s perfect for now so the people can go into the village for emergencies. The firemen, if something bad can happen,” the Deputy Mayor of Rawdon, Stephanie Labelle, said.

The historic storm also closed Route 125, one of the only roads into town.

“It’s the weather. It’s the climate change. We didn’t expect it in that area. It’s new,” Labelle said.

It could be weeks before the main road is repaired, and life can go back to normal for residents of Lac-Claude.