- Saguenay Flood
The Saguenay Flood ( _fr. Déluge du Saguenay) was a series of
flash floods that hit theSaguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region ofQuebec ,Canada onJuly 19 and 20,1996 . It was the biggest overland flood in 20th-centuryCanadian history .Problems started after two weeks of constant rain, which severely engorged
soil s,river s and reservoirs. The Saguenay region is a geologicalgraben , which increased the effect of the sudden massive rains ofJuly 19 ,1996 . In the span of a few hours, eleven inches fell on the region, the equivalent to the amount of rain usually received in a month.Over eight feet of water ran through parts of Chicoutimi and La Baie, completely levelling an entire neighbourhood. Over 16,000 people were evacuated. The official death tolls were seven deaths, but other sources (notably "
Canadian Geographic ") cite ten. Estimates reach CAD $1.5 billion in damages, a cost made greater by the disaster's occurrence at the height of the tourist season. Post-flood enquiries discovered that the network of dikes anddams protecting the city was poorly maintained. In the end, 488 homes were destroyed, 1,230 damaged and 16,000 people evacuated from the entire area, with ten deaths in themudslide s produced by the incredible rain. [ [http://www.collectionscanada.ca/sos/002028-1300-e.html?PHPSESSID=mqubhdap68k4igpbi63bd726j0 SOS! Canadian Disasters] , a virtual museum exhibition at Library and Archives Canada]A small white house that stood unharmed while torrents of water flowed around it became the symbol of the flood. It has been preserved, even though uninhabited, and despite a fire in 2002 remains standing today.
An unexpected effect of the flood was to cover the heavily contaminated
sediment s at the bottom of the Saguenay and Ha! Ha! rivers with feet of new clean sediments. Research has shown that these contaminated sediments are no longer a threat toecosystem s.Footnotes
External links
* [http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-70-95/disasters_tragedies/saguenay_flood/ CBC Digital Archives - The Saguenay Flood]
* [http://bilan.usherbrooke.ca/bilan/pages/evenements/3736.html Bilan du Siècle, University of Sherbrooke] in (French)
* [http://www.msc.ec.gc.ca/media/top10/1996_e.html Meteorological Service of Canada: Top Ten Weather Stories of 1996]
* [http://www.landslides.ggl.ulaval.ca/page.html Project Saguenay] The scientific team doing research on the ecological effects of the flood.
* [http://www.pbase.com/franck666/dluge_du_saguenay_en_1996 A private gallery]
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