Home swept away by landslide in Sainte-Monique, northeast of Montreal
Posted May 21, 2025 11:51 am.
Last Updated May 21, 2025 3:29 pm.
A house was swept away by a major landslide Wednesday morning in Sainte-Monique, in Centre-du-Québec — across from Trois-Rivières. The incident left a hole measuring 760 metres long by 150 metres wide, according to Public Safety estimates. Fortunately, there were no casualties or injuries.
At around 6 a.m., the ground opened up on the Rang Haut-de-l’Île road and engulfed the land, house and sheds of farmer André Lemire’s neighbour.
“I knew what was happening, because I knew it was going to happen one day,” said Lemire, who lives on a farm bordering the Nicolet River.
He explained that his wife woke him up early Wednesday morning.
The ground “opened up” and “when I left” to flee the danger, “the road disappeared behind me”, he added.
“The electric wires were on fire,” recounted the man, who is one of the evacuees.
According to Lemire, his neighbour, Fernand Therrien, had time to flee before his house was swallowed up, and the four dogs living in one of the sheds also managed to leave the area unharmed, according to another neighbour.
Four families affected
Families living in four homes in the area were evacuated and cared for by the Red Cross.
“There will be no reintegration today. That’s for sure,” said Sylvain Gallant, regional director of the Ministère de la Sécurité publique du Québec for the Mauricie-Centre-du-Québec region.
The cause of the landslide has not yet been confirmed by Public Safety. “It’s too early to say exactly why the landslide occurred, but we do know that there has been a lot of rain in recent days,” says Gallant.
A high-risk area
Lemire said he quickly understood what was happening on Wednesday morning, because “there have always been landslides” in this area, where he has lived for some 50 years.
He told The Canadian Press that a long time ago, landowners used to bury “wood, rocks and tanks in the river to prevent landslides”.
Several farmers in the area confirmed to The Canadian Press that they’ve been noticing chunks of earth rolling down the hillsides along the river for a long time.
“We’re at risk of landslides on both sides of the Nicolet River,” explained Sainte-Monique mayor Denise Gendron.
“There are areas at greater risk, which are in red, others in yellow or orange” and ”the houses were built long before we had these maps. Even here in the village, there’s a large section at risk,” added Gendron, as she received evacuees at the Town Hall.
“We’re built on the old Champlain Sea, there are very sensitive clays” and ”as there’s been a lot of rain lately…”
In 1955, houses collapsed “like houses of cards”.
On November 12, 1955, a major landslide had swept away part of the town of Nicolet, a dozen kilometers from Wednesday morning’s landslide.
“It all began when the gas station dominating the steep river bank broke up and was swept away in what appeared to be a wave of mud. One by one, houses collapsed like houses of cards, before a grove of majestic pines also slid into the clay flow,” reads a summary in Cap-aux-Diamants magazine, which covers Quebec history.
According to Radio-Canada archives, 2,000 residents were evacuated at the time, and the disaster caused three deaths and material losses estimated at $7 million.
André Lamontagne, Minister responsible for Centre-du-Québec, wrote on social network X that his “best thoughts are with the community”.
He added that a technical team from the Trois-Rivières fire department had been deployed, while specialists from the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility were involved.
Lamontagne said he was closely monitoring the situation with Public Safety Minister François Bonnardel and Nicolet-Bécancour MP Donald Martel.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
