THE BAY | The authorities confirm that the evacuation of the 53 additional residences in the La Baie sector ordered on Saturday evening was completed shortly after 7 a.m. Sunday morning. These new victims will be met in the next few hours by the civil security of Saguenay.
• Read also: 53 additional residences evacuated in La Baie
About 200 people are added to the toll of evacuees following the landslide that occurred last Monday on 8th Avenue in La Baie. The decision was taken by civil security on Saturday after a request from the engineers who drilled at the top of the hill.
These preliminary results let fear the worst while a scenario similar to that of the Saint-Jean-Vianney landslide, which occurred in 1971, was evoked.
Around 7:15 a.m. Sunday morning, all of the targeted residents had left, taking with them precious possessions, souvenirs and necessary items for an evacuation that could last for weeks.
A meeting is scheduled later in the morning to meet these new victims and take stock of the situation with them.
sand dyke
During this time, the City will work to secure the perimeter to avoid having to order other evictions in the event of ground movements. In particular, sand dykes 4 meters high will be urgently constructed to contain any debris.
“We want to do this to hold back the mudslide if it ever falls. It would make it possible not to evacuate even further around”, briefly commented Sunday morning Christian Fillion, head of the management and risk analysis division at the Saguenay Fire Department. The total evacuations currently stand at 76 residences.
Saturday during a press briefing late in the evening, his colleague Steeve Julien specified that the ground which is under the evacuated residences was “very friable”.
“It’s in depth. It could cause a major landslide. Currently, the ground is really almost [à la verticale] and in the next few days, they tell us that pieces of land will collapse and the ground will resume its normal slope”, specifies the deputy director of the fire department.
“By resuming its slope, it will eat several meters of land upstream of all that, which will take some residences.”
Some echoes of the drilling work carried out this week suggest that the engineers crossed a ground almost entirely composed of clay and waterlogged earth, which would explain the decision to evacuate the sector massively.
“It looks like a mess to the bottom. They told me that they did not touch any rock or solid, ”confided to the Journal a resident of the sector who spoke with the engineers.
More details to come…