Baie-Saint-Paul wakes up on Tuesday, heaving a sigh of relief – and overwhelmed by a feeling of discouragement. The rivers returned to their beds during the night, leaving a lull to the population tested by floods which always cut the small town in two. The receding waters now make it possible to see the extent of the damage, as the search continues to find two firefighters carried away by the river on Monday.
The city carries, Tuesday morning, the scars of the floods which ravaged, the day before, its usual tranquility. Gutted streets, condemned bridges, neighborhoods flooded with mud: traffic is expected to be disrupted for the next 48 hours. Several businesses remain closed on Tuesday. Some have their workforce stuck on the other side. Others just don’t have the heart for business.
North of the city center, the Rivière des Mares has cut Boulevard Monseigneur-de-Laval in two. The current has eroded the land near the abutments of the bridge that spans it, making any further eastward travel impossible. The only detour possible to head towards La Malbaie: go through the Saguenay.
“Usually it’s a small river of nothing. It’s possible to cross it on foot without getting wet by jumping on the rocks”, explains Paul Labbé, co-owner, with six of his brothers, of Le Genèvrier campsite. The latter, built in 1966 by their father, has approximately 450 pitches.
The waters of the Rivière des Mares completely destroyed it, carrying trailers and displacing at least one chalet in its wake. “I don’t know if we will be able to reopen in the future,” laments Mr. Labbé. Tuesday morning, it was time to take stock. “I was supposed to meet my brothers here to discuss what’s next, but three of them are stuck on the other side. We wanted to hire a helicopter to bring them in, but the sky is too low to take off. »
The river eroded “30 to 40 feet” (9 to 12 meters) of land at the height of the campsite, says Paul Labbé, widening a chasm that seriously threatened to wash away his daughter’s house. The stream began to regain its bed before swallowing the residence. The campsite, however, was not so lucky.
“It’s terrible for Baie-Saint-Paul’s economy. We had 450 places to welcome tourists, it was crowded in the grocery stores, cafes, shops in the village, ”laments the co-owner of Le Genèvrier campsite.
Two firefighters missing
The roar of helicopters still resounded in the sky of Baie-Saint-Paul on Tuesday morning. Two firefighters have been missing since Monday afternoon, swept away by the current while providing assistance to victims of Saint-Urbain, about thirty kilometers north of Baie-Saint-Paul. The municipality was still cut off from the world on Tuesday morning, isolated due to closed roads.
The region expects between 10 and 20 mm of rain by Wednesday morning. If the worst of the precipitation is behind, the challenges that are emerging for the Baie-Saint-Paul region, however, remain great.
Rémy Bernier had only about fifteen minutes to save his mower when the river started to come out of its bed on Monday afternoon. The fellow, a former strong man, saw his basement flooded by “5 to 6 feet of water”: Tuesday morning, he emptied his house with the boiler, unable to get his hands on a generator which, too, was stuck on the other side.
The flood turned his large lot into a huge field of mud. “Since yesterday, I have been dragging my damaged fences, my swing, the remains of my shed to the side of the road to make room. The river used to overflow from time to time, but in 20 years he had “never seen” a disaster of this magnitude.
The Saint-Aubin educational center received 584 evacuees overnight from Monday to Tuesday. The Department of Transportation inspects bridges before allowing them to reopen. The Minister of Public Security, François Bonnardel, and his colleague responsible for the Capitale-Nationale, Jonatan Julien, must go there on Tuesday morning to see the help needed in the region.