MONTREAL -- Many people in Quebec and New Brunswick will be spending their Sunday filling sandbags as they keep an anxious watch on rising floodwaters that are wreaking havoc across a wide region.
About 200 soldiers started filling sandbags and carrying out evacuations in Quebec's Outaouais and Mauricie regions overnight, with an additional 400 troops standing ready to deploy there and in Laval today.
Urgence Quebec says that as of last night, bloated rivers had resulted in 903 flooded residences, 251 isolated residences and 317 evacuees across the province.
Eight major floods have been identified as threatening thousands of Quebecers, and so far one death has been blamed on the high water.
Police say 72-year-old Louise Seguin Lortie died Saturday morning after driving her car into a sinkhole caused by flooding in the Pontiac area, about 30 kilometres northwest of Ottawa.
Some of the worst flooding has been in the Beauce region south of Quebec City, where 868 homes were swamped and 94 people evacuated.
Meanwhile, about 120 Canadian soldiers are being deployed across western New Brunswick to help residents threatened by rising floodwaters.
Fifteen communities in that province have been warned to remain on high alert.
