Tourists cheer up Lac-mégantic
Mayor thanks visitors mingling with journalists, tearful survivors
Staring at the line of cars crawling up Laval Street like a funeral procession, and at the dozens of people perched on Ste. Agnes church steps snapping cameras and craning necks for a better view of what was once the centre of town, Quebec police agent Benoit Bedard said he had never seen Lac-Mégantic so busy.
“It’s beautiful out; it’s the weekend. Residents are here, and so are folks from the region, from greater Quebec, even from the United States,” he said, gesturing to the long line of cars coming for a look.
“They want to see it with their own eyes; it’s just not the same as on TV. This event has caused this traffic.”
It’s been seven days since a train carrying 72 cars of crude oil derailed and burst into flames in the town, destroying its centre and leaving 33 confirmed dead. But the main drag feels as alive as ever.
The waitresses at Chez Loulou, also on Laval Street, explain they have been closing up shop later than usual to keep up with increased demand for their famous house fries. Elsewhere up the strip, patios are packed; the beach and the bars are also dense with people.
At Brasserie Laval, where the jukebox was still playing and the taps were still flowing, Marc-Antoine Lecours sat with his father André, drinking beers and showing patrons his new ink. Tattooed on his forearm was a green and blue ribbon, with the words “Remember Lac-Mégantic” and the date. It was his “lucky” seventh tattoo, and the 45-minute session at Dark Side Tattoo in St. Georges was on the house.
While support for the small municipality has come by way of charity — the Red Cross has received upwards of $3 million in donations to date, and two municipal funds for LacMégantic were announced Saturday morning — and viral encouragement — the LacMégantic Support aux Gens Facebook page has upwards of 22,000 members — tourism is what can be most keenly observed on the ground.
Even Mayor Colette RoyLaroche was moved by the outpouring of people visiting this weekend. “We feel like our call to support our tourism industry has been answered,” she said, thanking those visitors who were milling around with journalists Saturday. “You can feel it.”
A Montreal couple, who came for the weekend but didn’t want their names published, explained that they were here because “we can’t understand it by reading the papers.” Another, Camil Deblois and his wife from St. Georges, said that, “we had to see it ourselves, even if we can’t see much.”
Police-issued blockades bar the view of the accident at the “red zone” perimeter, the site of the crash now considered a crime scene. Though people are walking dogs, hanging out in pools and driving their motorcycles through the downtown like they might have always done, the grief that also exists at the centre of the bustle indicates that, really, things are not the same.
While “disaster tourists” try to see what they can from the church steps, emotionally wrought residents occupy the pews inside. They write messages on cut-out paper hearts, bring in photos of the missing and the dead, lay flowers to the altar. There are too many candles lit to be contained to one table. And the sobbing is audible among church chit chat and sound of coins hitting the bottom of the donation box.
The bells of Ste. Agnes rang 50 times, followed by a minute of silence for the victims of the crash. They chimed again during the afternoon news conference, stopping the mayor mid-sentence.
“Those bells give us hope to continue,” she said afterwards. “Our morale is good. It feels like we still have hope to get through this crisis.”
“The support we’ve received has been extraordinary.”