The authorities still have no idea when the approximately 700 residents evacuated from Chute-Saint-Philippe, Lac-des-Écorces and Lac-Saguay, in the Laurentians, will be able to return to their homes.
Urgent work is about to begin to secure the Morier dike, which threatens to give way and whose rupture would have devastating consequences in the sector, both for buildings and for roads.
The Minister of Public Security, François Bonnardel, took stock Tuesday in Mont-Laurier, in the company of regional elected officials and experts. “The first thing that is important for us was to secure these evacuees, that the coordination operations go very, very well. It’s impossible to tell people this morning, “you will find your home in four days, five days, seven days”. It would be inadequate to set a date,” the minister said.
Mr. Bonnardel said that most of the evacuees are with relatives or friends, while around 145 of them were in hotels or hostels in the region. He promised government assistance for those preemptively evicted, ensuring that the claims process would be put in place in the very short term.
As for the municipalities that must manage the crisis, “all the extraordinary expenses of these cities will be taken under the umbrella of the Ministry of Public Security,” he added.
At his side, Martin Ferland, from the General Directorate of Dams at the Ministry of the Environment, explained that an access road allowing heavy machinery to reach the dam had been completed on Monday. On Wednesday, an inverted filter must be installed at the foot of the dike, where leaks have been noted.
Reinforcement in sight
The medium-term objective, he explained, is to install a berm, or reinforcement at the foot of the dike, downstream, to secure it. “We are talking about work which could begin towards the end of the week, beginning of next week. This involves adding weight downstream of our structure to stabilize the dam. »
The expert specified that the installation of this type of structure is commonplace, but that plans must first be made. “This is work that is usual. Reinforcing a structure using a berm is nothing new. There is literature on this. »
At the same time, we are working to lower the water level by evacuating it through Lac des Écorces, in order to reduce the pressure.
Martin Ferland explained that the ministry has forecast maps in the event of failure of all structures of this type. In the case of the Morier dike, a failure would not lead to the destruction of an entire village, but would still cause considerable damage.
“There would be no towns wiped out, but still significant areas that would be flooded. […] The type of infrastructure that could be affected is very varied: houses, buildings of all kinds, roads… and there could be landslides. »
For his part, François Bonnardel specified that in the worst case, if the dike were to give way, a dozen villages could be affected. “If we had to evacuate on a larger scale, we could be talking about 2,000 additional buildings that could be affected. »
For these reasons, evacuated citizens will not be able to return home as long as the situation is critical, as is currently the case.
According to the Quebec Ministry of the Environment website, the Morier dike was built in 1954. It has an area of 4,248 hectares and has a retention capacity of 382,000,000 cubic meters, the equivalent of more than 100 000 Olympic swimming pools.
“It’s a dike that we monitor. Every month, there is an engineer who does inspections and it is a phenomenon that can appear overnight,” said Mr. Ferland.