Many victims who had to evacuate their emergency residence in La Baie on Saturday evening are in shock. More than 70 families who live in the area where a landslide swept away a house on Monday are left homeless.
Saguenay ordered the evacuation of 53 additional residences on Saturday evening, after receiving recommendations from the Ministry of Transport and the firm Englobe, which carried out analyzes earlier this week.
The victims had until this morning, 7 a.m., to evacuate their residence and leave the premises, bringing with them as much material as possible.
The evacuation could last several weeks, or even months, municipal authorities warned on Saturday, during a press briefing held around 9 p.m. They fear that a new landslide will occur in the area.
The ground conditions at this location are compared to those of the tragedy that claimed the lives of several people in 1971, in the landslide that swept away part of the municipality of Saint-Jean-Vianney.
Twenty-four residences were evacuated last week following the collapse of an embankment in the area of 8th and 9th Avenue on Monday evening. In total, 76 families are affected, said the mayor of Saguenay, Julie Dufour.
Several of the victims received the evacuation order around 10 p.m. or even at 10:30 p.m.
Looks like it’s not real, I kept telling the firefighters to get away, that I wouldn’t move, but it seems I have to goshared a disaster victim, Yolande Tremblay, on Saturday evening, as she picked up her personal belongings.
” It’s hard to leave everything quickly, not knowing where to go, not knowing where I’m going to go next. I’m not going to stay with my sister for a year or two months, three months. It’s difficult, I’m 66 and I never thought it would happen to me. “
Other people we met this morning said they were surprised to have had to leave their homes so quickly. Honestly, I didn’t expect it at all shared a victim.
The man, who lives not far from the residence swept away on Monday, had not been aware of the landslide on the evening of the events.
At that time I was in the basement at our house, I didn’t even hear zero vibration he added.
Accompany the victims
The authorities are hard at work to support the victims, assured the mayor of Saguenay, Julie Dufour, in an interview Sunday morning.
The Jean-Claude Tremblay Sports Center was converted Saturday evening into an emergency accommodation center to accommodate victims who wanted to spend the night there.
” The number one priority of this city is to accompany them. This morning, we are going to meet them and no one is going to be left alone. We understand all the more in the current context of the vacancy rate of our housing which is extremely low, it is extremely difficult to house everyone, but we support them. “
The mayor could not specify how many people are affected in total by the evacuation notice. This information will be known later in the morning.
Are there people who will prefer to go to the campsite or to the chalet? But when we will have the number of people who need housing, it is there [qu’on va le savoir]. But we’re already on the job said Ms. Dufour.
Municipal authorities will hold a press briefing which is expected around 10 a.m.
The Red Cross is also in La Baie to help the disaster victims.
More details to come
With information from Philippe L’Heureux and Flavie Villeneuve
Source: Radio-Canada
