Chris Lowrey
MUNICIPALITY OF PONTIAC Nov. 7, 2018
For the most part, the cleanup efforts after the devastating tornado that touched down in Breckenridge on Sept. 21 have gone smoothly, but there is still work to be done.
One of the major factors that slowed the recovery efforts was the provincial election. Due to election rules, the governing Liberals couldn’t make any pledges for assistance so close to voting day.
“The uncertainty of the election and having to navigate through a potential new government to get assistance, it could have taken forever,” said Municipality of Pontiac Mayor Joanne Labadie.

However, Labadie added that the new Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) government has been very helpful.
In light of the limited help that was available from the province at the time, residents rallied together to help one another out.
“The community was mobilized very quickly to take care of their properties,” she said.
Although the community made sure that properties were being tended to, there still remained the damage caused to greenspace.
In order to clear all the remaining brush, the municipality mobilized several private businesses that volunteered their time to help residents clean up.
“It was mostly professionals who came out with their equipment and completely voluntarily removed about 80 per cent of the debris,” Labadie said.
The only area still in need of a cleanup is the roadside of Hwy. 148, which is the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Transport of Quebec (MTQ).
“We need the okay from MTQ in order to do the road closure and the detour around the heavy equipment,” Labadie said.
Labadie said it’s unfortunate that the one remaining cleanup stretch is the main road used by people to access the Pontiac.
“It looks bad,” Labadie admitted. “But it’s literally all that’s left.”
The delay in cleaning up the roadside is a testament to how many people and organizations were affected by the storm.
“The building that houses the department that manages those [files] was actually hit by the tornado in the Mont Bleu area,” Labadie said. “So that office was in complete disarray.”
Labadie said that sometime in the next week there will be people on the ground to finish the cleanup.