A thousand residences were urgently evacuated in Chute-Saint-Philippe and Lac-des-Écorces, in the Laurentians, Sunday evening after 10 p.m. And it is impossible to know when these refugees will be able to return home. This is because the Morier dike, on the edge of the Kiamika reservoir, is showing signs of erosion and is threatening to give way. This holds a quantity of water equivalent to 100,000 Olympic swimming pools.
What there is to know :
- Around November 24, water accumulated abnormally at the foot of the Morier dike of the Kiamika reservoir. After investigation, the Ministry of the Environment determined that there was water infiltration into the earth dike.
- On Saturday, the Ministry detected water flows with sediments in the structure and concluded that there was “a probable progression of an internal erosion mechanism of the dike”, a warning sign of a possible breakup.
- Sunday evening, the Ministry of Public Security issued an “extreme” severity alert and evacuated a thousand residences.
The Ministry of Public Security issued an “extreme” severity alert on Sunday, a little after 10 p.m., concerning residences located along the Kiamika and Lièvre rivers. Evacuations continued Monday morning. Route 117, which connects Abitibi to southern Quebec, remains open to traffic even if a section is within the evacuated perimeter.
“This is a preventive measure,” explained Billie Piché, communications coordinator for the MRC Antoine-Labelle, Monday morning during a press conference. “If there were to be a flooding emergency, the time frame would be too short to evacuate. That’s why we do it preventatively,” she continued.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY QUÉBEC IN ALERT
Sector affected by the alert in the Laurentians
Chantale Jeannotte, MP for the Labelle constituency, also wanted to be reassuring during this press conference. “Currently, there is no one in danger. Everyone is safe. It’s important to say it. These are preventive measures,” she said emphatically. She also assured that the evacuees will receive $40 per person, per day, in compensation.
No return date announced
The evacuation notice asks citizens to plan for an evacuation of at least five days. More precisely, 651 residences were evacuated in Lac-des-Écorces and 350 others in Chute-Saint-Philippe. Monday evening, it was impossible to predict a return date for the evacuees, authorities indicated at a press conference.
Such a measure was put in place because water flows with sediments were spotted on the Morier dike. The Ministry of the Environment had been inspecting it since the end of November.
Spokesman Frédéric Fournier indicates that around November 24, “it was observed that there was water accumulating at the foot of the Morier dike downstream, a first sign” that the structure is in poor condition. An emergency measures plan was put in place by the General Directorate of Dams, which lowered the water level of the reservoir to observe the structure.
It was concluded that there was a probable progression of an internal erosion mechanism of the dyke. A harbinger of a possible breakup.
Frédéric Fournier, spokesperson for the Ministry of the Environment
Engineers are “on the ground” and inspect the dam twice a day. As the dike is in a remote area, snow removal operations and widening of the forest road are also underway to allow the passage of heavy machinery.
Stabilization work on the dike is planned this week, said Mélanie Lavoie, geotechnical engineer at the General Directorate of Dams at the Ministry of the Environment, in the evening. Around fifty engineers are also “hard at work” to find a long-term solution, said Martin Ferland, an engineer in the same department.
The last assessment of the dike dates back to 2019, according to the technical sheet from the Ministry of the Environment. No patch was required at the time. However, inspections take place every month, said Mr. Ferland. It is in this context that the water leaks were spotted.
What could have caused the damage to the structure? “We don’t yet know the answer to that question,” said M.me The way. We have certain hypotheses that we still need to evaluate. »
Another measure: Quebec is currently lowering the water level of the Poisson-Blanc reservoir so that it can absorb part of the water coming from the Kiamika reservoir.
Evacuated in the middle of the night
Police officers went door to door to ensure the evacuation and safety of all residents affected by the “preventive evacuation order,” said the Sûreté du Québec (SQ). Officers will remain on site to establish security perimeters and protect evacuated residences.
Benjamin Tessier received an alert on his phone a little after 10 p.m. informing him that his residence was near an area to be evacuated. At 1 a.m., the City finally informed him that he and his family also had to leave their pretty house on Route 311, along the Kiamika River, in the middle of a storm.
It’s still intense in the middle of the night to have to leave our house, especially with an 11 month old child.
Benjamin Tessier, who was evacuated
“Our house is higher than many others, but according to the City, it would be possible for the water to rise that far! We just bought our house in this area, so it’s quite a feeling,” says the man who took refuge in a motel in Mont-Laurier.
The Hautes-Laurentides school service center (CSSHL) closed the Notre-Dame and Saint-François schools, in Lac-des-Écorces, as well as the Henri-Bourassa school, in Chute-Saint-Philippe .
Evacuated citizens will be able to benefit from a financial support program from the Ministry of Public Security (MSP), confirmed Denis Bélanger, general director of civil security of the MSP, in the evening.
A “high capacity” dam
The Ministry of the Environment owns the Morier dike, a high-capacity dam located on the edge of the immense Kiamika reservoir and the river of the same name.
Originally, this reservoir was made up of two lakes, Upper and Lower Kiamika Lakes. The James MacLaren Company, which owned the hydroelectric rights on the Lièvre River, had the dam built in the mid-1950s. Quebec is today the owner, as are the Reno and Meilleur dams and the Rapides-des power station. -Cedars, located downstream.
The Morier dike, with a length of 678 meters and a height of 15.85 meters, has a retaining capacity of 382,000,000 cubic meters of water, according to the technical sheet from the Ministry of the Environment. The “level of consequences” of the rupture of this earth dike is classified as “very important”.
The Ministry of the Environment alone owns 930 government dams, including 391 high-capacity dams (like the Morier dike), 263 low-capacity dams and 276 small dams.