CBC – The number of Canadian soldiers helping flood victims along Quebec’s Richelieu River doubled to about 500 in the past day as water levels hit a record high.

Winds from the south of up to 80 kilometres an hour forced water from Lake Champlain to spill into the Richelieu southeast of Montreal.

Premier Jean Charest toured the region Monday afternoon for a third time since the flooding began five weeks ago. He then asked the Canadian Armed Forces for more help.

“They will be used for different tasks,” Charest said. “Be it security, sandbagging … we willbe responding to requests as quickly as possible.”

About 3,000 homes have been flooded and nearly 1,000 people have been forced out since the start of the floods.

It’s not clear how long the additional soldiers from the Valcartier base will stay in the region, said Major Richard Collin, deputy commander of the domestic task force, which is managing the operation.

“What I can say is that we will be in every town along the Richelieu River [affected by flooding],” he said.

Water levels are expected to decrease dramatically Tuesday afternoon, Collin said.

“Based on all the models that we saw … we expect that the winds are going to die down drastically after lunch,” he said.

But residents aren’t out of the woods yet. René Héroux of Environment Canada said rain is in the forecast later this week.

“About two to three days of precipitation starting Thursday … and going into the weekend,” Héroux said.

It won’t be until the start of next week that flood victims should start seeing “the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.