(La Baie) With their normal lives suspended by a sudden landslide last weekend, victims of La Baie are preparing to live in temporary accommodation for months.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
The view from the Auberge des battures on La Baie is hard to match, but Alex Gagnon would trade it tomorrow to find the house where he was raised and where he still lived with his two sisters, his parents and his godfather on Saturday last.
The small clan had to hastily leave the residence on Avenue du Port on the night of Saturday to last Sunday, when the municipal authorities evacuated a large sector of the district due to imminent landslides. 1
Photo David Boily, LA PRESSE
Alex Gagnon
My mother is disabled, for her, it was her whole universe. She grew up there, that’s where she raised her children. My paternal grandmother was in that house. When she died, my maternal grandmother was installed in this house.
Alex Gagnon, victim of La Baie
Alex Gagnon’s family now shares three rooms at the Auberge des battures thanks to funding provided by the Red Cross. However, it will end on Thursday, and Alex Gagnon already knows that he and his family will not be able to afford a single night more.
Like a “total loss”
On Tuesday, the City of Saguenay was still working to relocate some 190 residents of the 90 buildings evacuated within the perimeter around the landslide.
Due to possible landslides, it is out of the question for them to return to their home to recover personal effects, even if they are still standing, behind an imposing fence.
Photo David Boily, LA PRESSE
A fence prevents access to residences in the evacuated sector.
“It’s like a total loss for the moment, it’s as if they had gone on fire,” said the director of the Fire Safety Department and emergency measures coordinator, Carol Girard.
People are therefore looking for a furnished apartment to put their suitcases in, an additional challenge for the City of Saguenay which, with the help of the Office municipal d’habitation de Saguenay, has managed to find enough housing for everyone.
“In theory, they all want [avoir accès à un appartement], says Carol Girard. It’s quite a logistics. The City launched a website on Tuesday to centralize offers from people wishing to offer available housing, furniture or household appliances to disaster-stricken citizens.
Despite everything, Alex Gagnon deplores the slowness at which the information arrives. “We have no concrete information on the speed or operation of the process. We are told: we will find you accommodation. OK, but what kind of housing: apartments, public housing, houses, what are we going to be able to have? “, he wonders.
Life went on
Marie-Josée Olsen took four hours to get everything she needed out of her house in 9e Street. The teacher at Cégep de Jonquière suspects today that she will never set foot there again.
For weeks, neighborhood life had continued normally despite the presence of a wall of concrete blocks placed in the middle of the 8e Avenue, in the shadow of where the mound collapsed.
Did she suspect that such a phenomenon could occur a few steps from her home, barely seven months after she had acquired her house, where an additional dwelling would one day welcome her mother?
Photo David Boily, LA PRESSE
Marie-Josée Olsen, victim of La Baie
Yes, I saw it on my certificate of location, but the Baieriverains will say: it toffé the deluge [de 1996], it’s good for life. They will all tell you the same thing. And that’s what I said to myself at the notary.
Marie-Josée Olsen, victim of La Baie
For the moment, she still does not know if she will be able to return to her home one day. The authorities estimate that it will take another ten days to complete the collection of geotechnical data. Emergency work may need to be done first, just to secure the area.
But even if we told her tomorrow that she can go back to her house, Marie-Josée Olsen wouldn’t want it. “For me, it’s the worst thing that could happen to me, it would be the biggest loss. Would you buy it yourself? “, she launches to her interlocutor.
The Premier of Quebec, François Legault, will be in Saguenay this Wednesday morning to meet the victims of La Baie. Those encountered by The Press expect him to announce an increase in the compensation granted by Quebec to the victims.
The mayoress of Saguenay, Julie Dufour, pleads the reimbursement of the market value of the houses and the full reimbursement of the bills of the displaced victims, who must be satisfied with $20 a day. A “derisory” sum, according to Alex Gagnon.
“No one will make money here. The only hope is not to take too big a loss, ”said Marie-Josée Olsen, well aware that she will not see the money invested in her house bought at higher prices in the midst of a pandemic.
Learn more
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- 90
- Number of buildings evacuated in La Baie as of June 21
source: City of Saguenay
- 190
- Number of people evacuated in La Baie as of June 21
source: City of Saguenay