The Saguenay flood (french: Déluge du Saguenay) was a series of

flash floods A flash flood is a rapid flooding of low-lying areas: washes, rivers, dry lakes and depressions. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm, hurricane, or tropical storm, or by meltwater from ice or snow flowing o ...

on July 19 and 20, 1996 that hit the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region of

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada. It was the biggest overland flood in 20th-century

Canadian history The history of Canada covers the period from the arrival of the Paleo-Indians to North America thousands of years ago to the present day. Prior to European colonization, the lands encompassing present-day Canada were inhabited for millennia by ...

History

Problems started after two weeks of constant rain, which severely engorged

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former te ...

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

s and

reservoirs A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including control ...

. The Saguenay region is a geological

graben In geology, a graben () is a depressed block of the crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults. Etymology ''Graben'' is a loan word from German, meaning 'ditch' or 'trench'. The word was first used in the geologic contex ...

, which increased the effect of the sudden massive rains of July 19, 1996. In two days, rainfall accumulated that was "equivalent to the volume of water that tumbles over

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Falls, ...

in four weeks." Déluge Saguenay Accumulations

Over of water flooded parts of

Chicoutimi Chicoutimi () is the most populous borough (arrondissement) of the city of Saguenay in Quebec, Canada. It is situated at the confluence of the Saguenay and Chicoutimi rivers. During the 20th century, it became the main administrative and com ...

and

La Baie La Baie (French pronunciation: / la bɛ/, Quebec French pronunciation: / la be/) is one of three boroughs in the city of Saguenay, Quebec, Canada. It was created during Quebec's municipal reorganization in 2002. From 1976 to 2001, it was know ...

, completely levelling an entire neighbourhood. More than 16,000 people were evacuated. The official death toll was ten, but other sources (notably ''

Canadian Geographic ''Canadian Geographic'' is a magazine published by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, (RCGS) based in Ottawa, Ontario. History and profile After the Society was founded in 1929, the magazine was established the next year in May 1930 unde ...

'') cite ten. Estimates reach 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 Dyke (UK) or dike (US) may refer to: General uses * Dyke (slang), a slang word meaning "lesbian" * Dike (geology), a subvertical sheet-like intrusion of magma or sediment * Dike (mythology), ''Dikē'', the Greek goddess of moral justice * Dikes ...

and

dams A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, ...

protecting the city of Chicoutimi was poorly maintained. In the end, 488 homes were destroyed, 1,230 damaged, and 16,000 people evacuated from the entire area. An additional ten persons died in the

mudslide A mudflow or mud flow is a form of mass wasting involving fast-moving flow of debris that has become liquified by the addition of water. Such flows can move at speeds ranging from 3 meters/minute to 5 meters/second. Mudflows contain a significa ...

s produced by the incredible rain.

Legacy

A small white house (referred to in French as ''La petite maison blanche'', "The little white house") stood nearly unharmed in Chicoutimi while torrents of water rushed in on every side, and it became the symbol of surviving the flood. It was owned by Jeanne d'Arc Lavoie-Genest. With its foundation still highly exposed after the flooding, it has been preserved in Saguenay (the city name has changed) as a historical park and

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

commemorating the flood. An unexpected effect of the flood was to cover the heavily contaminated

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand an ...

s at the bottom of the Saguenay and Ha! Ha! Rivers with of new, relatively clean sediments. Because of this, research has shown that the old sediments are no longer a threat to

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

s and the river will not have to be dredged and treated to control contamination. The Ha! Ha! Pyramid was created to memorialise the flood.

References

External links

CBC Digital Archives - The Saguenay Flood
University of Sherbrooke

* ttp://www.landslides.ggl.ulaval.ca/page.html Project Saguenay The scientific team doing research on the ecological effects of the flood. {{coord, 48, 25, 30, N, 71, 04, 34, W, display=title, region:CA-QC 1996 disasters in Canada Floods in Canada History of Saguenay, Quebec 1996 natural disasters 1996 floods Natural disasters in Quebec 1996 in Quebec July 1996 events in Canada