Residents who had to flee their homes in the small Quebec community of Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac when a 40-year-old dike burst on April 27 have been assured by the Quebec Environment Minister that a new dike will be built.
“We will be able to build a stronger dike,” said Benoit Charette at a press conference. “It’s not the solution for all the cases that happened in the last week, but we had to do something special for Sainte Marthe.”
Details of the new dike’s construction were scarce. Charette says he “cannot give any specific details” and that he wants to protect people first.
Quebec has offered incentives of up to $250,000 for residents to move out of flood zones, but it is undetermined if Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac falls into that category.
“We don’t know at this moment if everyone will be able to rebuild their home at the same place,” said Charette.
For residents, clean-up is a daunting task – local resident Karen Vaage told CTV News that “everything is gone, my life is over here.”
“We were so happy to have this little place,” Vaage said. “Now we have nothing, and nowhere to go and I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
