Quebec, a territory of lakes and waterways, has planted its roots on the shores of its countless rivers. The houses have flourished on its banks, and for sometimes centuries, they have braved the elements, resisting the floods as best they can. Today, the disaster-stricken towns are “at the time of major decisions” in the face of climatic vagaries: leave and sacrifice their built heritage or stay and suffer the vagaries of Mother Nature?
In Baie-Saint-Paul, the ancestral beauties line Saint-Joseph Street, one of the most affected by last Monday’s flood. On either side stands one of the oldest quarters of the village colonized in the 17the century. The sector has just under 200 buildings: almost all of them are in the flood zone of the Gouffre River.
The hundred-year-old houses turn their backs on the latter, subject to its slightest whims. This week’s deluge did not spare them: the day after the flood, mud smeared these noble buildings. Once again, these venerable ones became the silent victims of raging nature.
“Saint-Joseph Street is priceless,” explains Serge Gauthier, president of the Charlevoix Historical Society. There are many houses with mansard roofs, it is historical also according to the owners who lived there in the past. There have been floods in the past, and we have always protected heritage. »
From Sainte-Marie to Baie-Saint-Paul
This is not the first flood to wet the doorstep of these ancestral ones, but it may be too many. The mayor of Baie-Saint-Paul, Michaël Pilote, warned Thursday that “the status quo will not be possible for the future”.
It is still too early, repeats the mayor, to determine who will have to leave and who will be able to stay. However, the district bordering rue Saint-Joseph is in danger of changing its face after these recent torrential rains. “If it is not possible to rebuild safely, if there is no possible development, we will have to face the facts,” said the 29-year-old mayor. Anyway, what people have experienced, there is no one who wants to relive it either. »
A few years earlier, 140 km away, the “evidence” was right about 425 houses along the Chaudière River. After devastating floods in the spring of 2019, Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce decided to move the city back to give the river back its freedom.
Among the sacrificed were several heritage houses. “It was emotional, that’s for sure and certain, explains Gaétan Vachon, the mayor of the Beauceronne city. For many, it was a legacy, the story of their whole life… But in the face of disasters, the question must be asked: what do we do? Are we still struggling and going through this? »
Today, he ensures that no one regrets the demolition of the district which ran along the Chaudière. “It hurt us at the time, but I think it was the best decision for the citizens. At some point, culture matters a lot, but when you have water all the way to the counter, it’s a game-changer and the decision becomes obvious. »
Indomitable rivers
In memory of the mayor, Sainte-Marie experienced 14 major floods between 1960 and 2020. The Chaudière River is not the only one to experience tumultuous springs: during the last century, the Gouffre River has also emerged several times from her bed.
As early as 1936, it was already overflowing into rue Saint-Joseph. The notes of a citizen of the time, highlighted in an article signed in 2002 by Serge Gauthier, bear witness to a desolation that echoes the tragedy that occurred 87 years later.
“On March 19, after three more days of rain, there was an ice jam on the river, told Émile Mailloux in his notebooks. The water level rose twenty feet. His residence, he added, had received three and a half.
“This type of flood has already occurred in the past,” says Pascale Biron, from Concordia University’s Department of Geography, Urban Planning and Environment. By observing data on the historical flow of the Gouffre River dating back to 1967, the professor found that the fury of the river was nothing new on Monday.
The flow of the river this week reached a paroxysm of 419 m3/s, a force almost reached, or even exceeded, only three times between 1968 and 1976. Data are missing for the period from 1996 to 2020, since no gauging station assessed the flow of the Gouffre River during of this period.
Recent history is a reminder of Baie-Saint-Paul’s vulnerability: already in 2008, floods had caused $2 million in damage.
Released last summer, the regional plan for wetlands and bodies of water of the MRC de Charlevoix calculates that the territory of Baie-Saint-Paul includes nearly 60 hectares located in a flood zone. “The risk of flooding is high, reports the document, since it is in the urban perimeter that the waters of the Bras du Nord-Ouest river mix with the waters of the Gouffre river. »
“The risk of damage to infrastructure is very high downstream of this intersection, because a large number of homes, including an entire neighborhood, are located in flood-prone areas, continues the study. To reduce the risk, the local authorities have set up protective works on the banks of the river. These are beginning to weaken, the report notes, and will need to be maintained or rebuilt in the coming years. »
Heritage and climate change
Climate change is arousing “certain interest” in the built heritage community, according to Action patrimoine. ” It is urgent […] to reflect collectively on solutions adapted to each environment, writes by email its director general, Renée Genest. This would make it possible to reflect upstream, to establish priorities and guidelines concerning the buildings that we wish to preserve at all costs. »
Monday’s disaster will happen again, warns Pascale Biron, and Baie-Saint-Paul will have to make difficult choices. “Floods are part of the nature of rivers,” explains the Concordia professor. It is normal and it is inevitable that in the next decades, similar floods will occur. »
“A village cannot be rebuilt like that,” says Serge Gauthier. If we destroy the beauty of Baie-Saint-Paul, we are sacrificing the soul and the economy of the village. When you destroy your heritage, you bite your own hand, because that’s what people who visit come to admire. »
The Charlevois village is at the “hour of major decisions”, concludes the mayor of Sainte-Marie, Gaétan Vachon. “It’s really not easy and I’m really sorry for them, says the elected Beauceron. We have lost a lot of our history, but at the same time, it was not our administration that made the decision. It’s nature, in the end, that took care of it. »