Grenville-sur-la-Rouge residents allowed home as fears of dam failure abate

Residents in western Quebecforced to flee their homes over fears the Bell Falls dam would fail are now allowed to return, a week after themandatory evacuation order was issued.

Hydro-Qubecsaid Thursdaythe dam no longer poses a danger.

"The results of our inspections at the Bell Falls damare positive," the public utility said on Twitter.

"We are satisfied with the condition of our facilities. We have informed public safety and the municipality tonight andthey will be able to tell people that they can go home."

Allowing the roughly 50 residents still under evacuation order to return wasultimately a municipal decision for Grenville-sur-la-Rouge,made in collaboration with provincial police.

The evacuation order was officially lifted at8 p.m.

Road closure makes return home difficult for some

Many of those living north of the dam had already gone home, according to Mayor Tom Arnold, but those south of the dam were not allowed to drive up the closed, heavily damaged road.

Bell Falls, or Chute-Bell, isabout 23 kilometres northwest ofGrenville-sur-la-Rouge, which ison the north side of the Ottawa River, across fromHawkesbury, Ont.

On April 25, some 250 people total were encouraged to vacate theGrenville-sur-la-Rouge area due to the danger posed by spring flooding.

At that time, Hydro-Qubecsaidthe dam wasdesigned to withstand a "thousand year" flood which means a flood that has a 0.1 per cent chance of occurring and the utility wasconfident will hold even as water levels rise beyond that limit.

Despite that confidence, Hydro-Qubecspokesperson FrancisLabbsaid thatthe utility could not "legally and morally guarantee" the structure would hold.

A section ofRivire-RougeRoad was still closed Thursday, but a public works team is out this morning making the necessary repairs, Arnold said.

Residents were still able to traverse the closed section by foot if the alternate routes, such as a road west of the river, would not get them home.