Montérégie landslide threatens family home

A large section of land collapsed on Sunday a few metres from a singlefamily home on the banks of the Richelieu River in the Montérégie region.

The house was vacant when the landslide occurred on Sunday morning in St-Roch-de-Richelieu, about 50 kilometres northeast of Montreal, so there were no injuries and no buildings were swept away.

But because of the size of the land that collapsed and the risk that the house could be swept away if another landslide occurs, civilprotection and fire prevention authorities from the Quebec Public Safety Department recommended to local authorities on Sunday that the two residents not be allowed to go back home.

The house was four metres from the hole on Monday morning, and land continued to slide into the Richelieu River, according to Jean-Sébastien Forest, the regional director of Sécurité civile et de la Sécurité incendie pour la Montérégie-L’Estrie. Neighbouring homes are not threatened, he added.

Firefighters and engineers working for the Quebec government were working to empty the threatened home on Monday. The case will be submitted for financial aid, but it was unknown if there will be an attempt to save the building or whether it can be done safely.

Heavy precipitation could have contributed to the landslide, Forest said.