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Tornado tears through Quebec town, destroys up to 20,000 maple trees

One syrup producer alone said his family lost about 3,000 trees. "It will take at least two generations to restore."

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Between 15,000 and 20,000 maple trees were uprooted or snapped Wednesday night by a tornado that tore through the town of Ste-Rose-de-Watford in the Chaudière-Appalaches region.

According to a weather summary published by Environment Canada, one of the many thunderstorms passing through southern Quebec produced an EF1-category tornado.

“Analysis of satellite imagery clearly shows a ground track corresponding to that of a tornado having travelled 3.5 kilometres with a width of 200 to 300 metres,” Environment Canada wrote.

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Mayor Hector Provençal, who inspected the damage, said the winds destroyed 15,000 to 20,000 maple trees.

“There’s nothing that can be done; the trees are broken or uprooted along four or five kilometres.”

Provençal said the destruction represents “losses of between $135,000 and $155,000 a year” for the six maple syrup producers whose lands were hit by the winds.

“It will take at least two generations for replanted trees to mature,” he said.

On his Facebook page, maple syrup producer Richard Fleury wrote his family had lost about 3,000 trees.

“This morning my grandparents must be spinning in their graves. So many years to maintain, to create a working business. How many tens of thousands of hours of work … all of it destroyed in a minute,” reads the post. “Five generations of work, it will take at least two generations to restore the sectors that were destroyed.”

Provençal said the area would be inspected by Quebec’s Public Security Ministry on Monday and that in the meantime he wanted a drone to fly over the area to assess the scale of the damage.

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