(Saguenay) The number of households evacuated in La Baie, in Saguenay, continues to climb due to the risk of landslides. The city asked another 53 families Saturday night to vacate their homes by 7 a.m. Sunday.
Posted at 12:02 a.m.
The threat of a large landslide, “similar to that of Saint-Jean-Vianney”, according to Steeve Julien, deputy director of the Saguenay Fire Department, is to be feared. This 1971 tragedy swept away 42 homes and killed 31 people.
Already 21 households were evacuated earlier this week, following the landslide that completely swept away a house on Monday on the 8e Ave. It had been evacuated as a precaution in April.
“The ground below all that is very friable at depth, which could cause a landslide of great importance”, explained Mr. Julien, who communicated the conclusions of the engineers who carried out the drilling, during a press conference on Saturday evening.
Residents will have to be patient.
“We are now at 76 families in total who will be evacuated for probably weeks, maybe even months, so we are doing everything we can to help relocate these people, to give them information” , underlined the mayoress of Saguenay, Julie Dufour, on Saturday evening.
Perimeter under surveillance
Security guards have also been hired to ensure that no one enters the perimeter, on the one hand for obvious security reasons, but also to protect the evacuated residences against theft and mischief.
Accompaniment services have been put in place for evacuated residents, whether by the Red Cross, the CIUSSS Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, the City of Saguenay or the Ministry of Public Security, which oversees security. civil.
Already, Quebec is preparing for the requests for help that will surely emanate from this natural disaster.
By April 26, five residences had been evacuated due to the risk of landslides, but two of them were able to accommodate their occupants again thereafter. Solidification work had been undertaken, including the installation of a concrete wall. A firm had been hired to carry out expertise to determine the measures that would be required to prevent the embankment from collapsing, but the landslide occurred on Monday before this work could be completed.
The 21 residences evacuated this week are located on avenue du Parc, on the Bellevue terrace and on 8e Ave.
The 53 other houses evacuated at the end of the week are those located on avenues du Port and du Parc, on 6e Street as well as on the 7e8e and 9e Avenues.