THE BAY | Work to complete the demolition of the house in La Baie that was destroyed by a landslide on Monday evening began on Wednesday morning. There are also plans to strengthen the wall, which likely saved lives, but heavy rain is expected again on Thursday and Friday.
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On Wednesday, a giant mechanical shovel moved the remains of the 8th Avenue residence, which had been crushed by a landslide caused by Monday’s landslide. On site, a worker managed to pull a small porcelain teddy bear out of the pile of rubble unharmed. A neighbor of the small family of five who recovered the object is upset.
“I’ll give it back to them, maybe that’s all that’s left,” Serge Carrier sighed. “It weighs on the emotions. It can be seen how children’s things are torn like this. We realize even more this morning that these people have lost everything.”
In less than two hours, the excavator had demolished what was left of the second floor. The home was toppled over the concrete block wall protecting neighboring apartment buildings by the landslide. The debris was sent to the other side of the low wall to prevent it from sliding further should a second rockfall occur.
patience
Work is also underway to strengthen the protective wall, which was displaced a few meters by the tons of earth that rolled down the embankment on Monday evening. On Wednesday morning, backhoe trucks transported the towering blocks to the corner of 8th and 9th Avenues.
The residents of the apartments evacuated behind the abyss were able to recover personal belongings on Tuesday evening, but now have to wait for new information. The city anticipates a one to two week delay before these people can return home.
Teams from engineering firm Englobe were on site Wednesday morning to take core samples at the center of the Avenue du Parc roundabout, where two apartment buildings stand almost on the edge of the gaping hole created by ground movement.
Teams of ground movement experts from the Ministère des Transport take part in the important analytical work that needs to be carried out on site before making important decisions.
Upcoming review
The City of Saguenay and Civil Security must take stock of the situation in the middle of the day. We should know more about the work ahead by this point, but also the risks posed by future mood swings from Mother Nature.
Météo Média forecasts accumulations of 15 to 20 millimeters for the La Baie sector on Thursday and another 10 millimeters on Friday.
This other episode of rain is worrying the residents of the area.
“Oh yes! It’s scary, that’s for sure,” says Serge Carrier, who almost lost his home in Monday’s landslide after the destroyed residence halted its run on his land, just meters from the wall of his home .
“We hope the work they’re doing helps if anything else ever happens upstairs, but we never have a guarantee, that’s the worrying thing,” the man adds.
More details to come.