Sinkhole swallows Quebec home, four missing

Here's an article from today with more info on the collapse, and from the comments, some folks are asking some of the same questions presented here as to why houses were allowed to be built there.

www.theglobeand mail.com

It took only an instant for an idyllic country scene to collapse in an apocalyptic abyss — the earth opened, gobbled up part of a village, and dragged a family of four down to its death in a muddy crater.

Authorities said the hockey-mad Préfontaines were in the basement of their elegant country home cheering on the Montreal Canadiens when the landslide struck Monday night.

“After digging and going through the rubble, we found the four victims,” Michel Doré, Quebec's emergency management co-ordinator, said Tuesday night.

reply to post by JacKatMtn

Actually the building code in Quebec is very high , i think that the problem is there are not enough inspectors and that they in my opinion do not take enough time to access possible threats , not to mention the fact that the building promoters with money put pressure and (money) on local authorities to get these permits and skipping lots of experts that could probably detect similar problems (saving and making more money is the real problem)
Yes i think building codes should be revised and use of scanning machines to evaluate the condition of the land and its composition should be mandatory , and builders be under more scrutiny .
We have seen lately a few buildings that have sunk 3 to 5 inches (tilted forward) and nobody not even the government checks this out , a blg change is in need everywhere ! And unscrupulous builders and government officials should be accountable

I think what ticks me off is hearing even CNN saying this was a land slide, this isn't a land slide its a sink hole its very different. It just so ticks me off to hear such trash.

reply to post by pmbhuntress


Thanks for correcting that , yes it is a sinkhole and not landslide ! And Thanks OP for the updated picture , it seems the government whether municipal , provincial or federal have comunications problems regarding how to prevent or try to minimize such events from reoccurring , of course there is no 100% fail safe, but a change is in need and the problem is always at what cost ....