Torrential rains in the Gaspé Peninsula on Tuesday caused a landslide that blocked Highway 132, but also scared a resident of the area whose vehicle was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
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Johnny Robinson had left Longueuil on Tuesday at noon to return home to Madeleine-Centre, one of the three former villages that today make up Sainte-Madeleine-de-la-Rivière-Madeleine, where he has lived for “four or five months “.
It was between 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. and the motorist, who had just traveled about 800 km, was only about ten from his destination.
“I was coming to 60 [km/h] and all i saw was a black plaque. We saw nothing, absolutely nothing. The sea was heavy. It was windy, pouring wet and there was haze to break everything, ”explained the 65-year-old retiree.
“When I got to the black plate I went flying. Yes I was scared my God when it lifted. Very scared, very, very scared. I was in shock,” he insists.
Lucky in his misfortune
Fortunately for Mr. Robinson, his vehicle was not immediately buried. It ended up leaning to the driver’s side, but almost on top of the hump.
“In my opinion it had already started to fall and then it continued. After I got out it looks like my vehicle got buried quite a bit.”
The driver’s side door wouldn’t open, so he had to put his feet on the steering wheel to get out of the side.helper“.
“I wanted to go to Manche-d’Épée [le village juste avant Madeleine-Centre] but [la plaque] was too wide. I retraced my steps to take the direction of Gros-Morne”, he says.
“I came to grips with the asphalt. I was crossed from edge to edge [par la pluie]“, he recalls.
Difficult return
On his way, he finally crosses a motorist, but he is not yet at the end of his troubles.
“He didn’t want to take me on because he didn’t believe me. It continued and then veered away. When he saw my vehicle on the dirt pad, the lights on, he understood. He took me on board and landed me at Gros-Morne,” he said.
“From there a friend took me home by the old paths over the precipices,” adds Mr. Robinson. A chance that he had a four legged because we did not pass. The water had eaten up the roads and there were canals a foot and a half in length.”
Although he thinks he will be fearful when he returns to this section of the 132, the sixty-year-old does not intend to stop himself from hitting the road again.
“When I pass by there I will go well, very quietly. It’s dangerous, there’s nothing you can do when it hits you like this […] If I hadn’t gotten out of there, I probably would have died,” says Johnny Robinson.
A risky road
Traffic had resumed alternately this afternoon on Route 132, said the mayor of Sainte-Madeleine-de-la-Rivière-Madeleine.
“I only have congratulations to give to the Ministry of Transport, Public Security and Hydro-Quebec,” said Joël Côté, more than satisfied with the speed of their response.
The municipality of 280 inhabitants offers a breathtaking landscape. But sometimes there is a price to pay.
“This landslide was exceptional, but landslides or rock falls are not uncommon. I’ve had to deal with a rock as big as the front of my Jeep. In winter, I have already hit three avalanches in 90 km. That’s how life is between the sea and the mountains,” he says philosophically, encouraging people not to hit the road when the conditions are extreme.
Does he see a link to global warming?
“I’m not an expert, but they tell us that the floods that used to happen every 100 years, now happen every 20 years, and those every 20 years, now every five years. We see the effect. Here the sea is knocking at the doors of the chalets on rue de l’Anse. People like to build by the sea, but they will have to get used to seeing it from further away,” he concludes.