Social workers help shell-shocked Lac-Megantic residents
Pauline Marois blasts rail company chairman
LAC-MÉGANTIC, QUE.—Six minutes.
That's how long it took to ring a church bell 50 times, once for each life that ended suddenly, one week ago.
Hundreds of people made their way to Ste-Agnès church in downtown Lac-Mégantic, Que., on Saturday to hear the bells and observe the minute of silence that followed, to remember and to mourn the dead.
"We're here because we have to support the family," said Patricia Couture, whose aunt Marie-France Boulet is among those still missing, presumed dead. Couture drove the 370 kilometres from Rivière-du-Loup with her husband, Richard Harrison, and three children.
"We're hoping for a funeral," Couture said.
"We're hoping that they find the body," Harrison added.
On Saturday, authorities said they hadrecovered 33 bodies from the wreckage of a runaway train that exploded in downtown Lac-Mégantic last Saturday shortly after 1 a.m. The 17 still missing are presumed dead.
The coroner's office said it has identified nine victims so far. It earlier released the name of Elianne Parenteau, 93.
On Saturday, the office named seven more victims: Frédéric Boutin, 19, Kathy Clusiault, 24, Élodie Turcotte, 18, Yannick Bouchard, 36, Karine Lafontaine, 35, Maxime Dubois, 27, and Mélissa Roy, 29. Another name is to be released on Monday.
The coroner's office has warned that some remains may never be found, simply vapourized in the power of the blast that destroyed half of the town's historic centre.
People came to the church alone, or in pairs holding hands, or with families and dogs. They came from nearby towns, Saintes-Georges and Riviere-du-Loup and from cities, Montreal and Quebec City.
A moment before the bells began to toll at noon, a woman stood alone on the sidewalk, her back to the church. She faced the devastation, mostly hidden from view now behind a tractor-trailer and heavy black cloth draped along the chain link fence that surrounds the blast area.
She placed her hand over her heart. She took a deep, shuttering breath. She walked away.
Earlier Saturday morning, Clermont Lapointe tended to his sign, erected beside the railway tracks that run through the heart of this community — tracks that brought what many now call the train de morte, the death train, to this pretty tourist town.
A wooden stand holds a piece of wood covered in brown paper, upon which Lapointe has written in French: "You took our loved ones. You won't take any more. We now have our guardian angels."
"So many guardian angels," said Lapointe. "Too many. We just have to think about that and pain comes."
Nearby, a sign reads "Shame on you MMA," referring to the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway, the company at the heart of the disaster. "Train from hell, don't ever come back here. You're no longer welcome."
The signs all point northwest toward Nantes, the community about 11 kilometres away where an MMA engineer parked a 72-car train loaded with crude oil for the night. The local fire department was called to put out a blaze on the locomotive on Friday shortly before midnight. At 12:56 a.m., the train began rolling toward Lac-Mégantic. Less than 20 minutes later, the explosions began.
But a week after the disaster, on a street in Lac-Mégantic, an elderly man pulled a lawn mower back and forth over unkempt grass. Joggers huffed by and children careered across the asphalt on bicycles. Out on the lake, boats dotted the dark blue water. These ordinary things have been absent from this ravaged town for the past week.
Life will go on here, because it must.
Resident Francine Coulombe didn't lose anyone she knew. But she came to the church vigil.
"There is a lot of sadness in town, but also a lot of calm and order," Coulombe said. "There is a lot of solidarity. I know we're going to get through this."
But on Saturday, for six minutes, the bells tolled for all that is lost. When the last reverberation faded, silence descended. Lise Doyon, who lost her son, Kevin Roy, wept into the shoulder of her friend Jeannot Labrecque.
Sixty seconds later, the bells rang out again, playing "L'Angélus," while a man released several white doves into the blue sky.
Doyon and Labrecque made their way across the church yard in front of a statue to leave a small memorial. He rubbed her back.
They knelt and bowed their heads.
With files from Jacques Gallant
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