A community is in mourning and an investigation is underway, after four members of a Quebec family were found dead after their home was partially buried in a landslide.

The bodies of the Prefontaine family were found Tuesday evening after a careful search through precarious rubble and mud.

The family, Richard Prefontaine, Lynne Charbonneau, and their two girls, nine-year-old Amelie and 11-year-old Anais, were found close together in the basement of their home, some still on the couch.

They were likely watching Game Six of the Montreal-Pittsburgh NHL playoff series when the landslide struck Monday night on the outskirts of Saint-Jude, Que., near a tributary of the Yamaska River.

Autopsies were to be performed on Wednesday.

The landslide left a hole four times larger than a football field, damaged a two-lane road and prompted the evacuation of five other houses in the town, which lies about 50 kilometres from Montreal.

About two dozen people were allowed to return to their homes on Wednesday. But authorities were still checking soil stability near the disaster zone, which they secured with fencing and warning signs.

"Most of the housing is not in immediate danger," said Michel C. Dore, the province's emergency management co-ordinator.

"We want to make sure that if there is anyone close to such risk zones that we can go and reassess if anything has changed, to avoid be surprised once again."

Still, the town's mayor, Yves de Bellefeuille, said that many people are still worried about the stability of the ground beneath their homes.

Over the next two days, experts plan to double-check that houses in the area are safe, and will follow up in coming weeks.

"For now, people are investigating along the river and watching for cracks, failure of the filed, anything that could tell us something," said Christian Vanasse, a local municipal councillor.

Community mourns

Many in the community of Saint-Jude were still hoping for a miracle Tuesday, especially after the Prefontaine golden retriever, Foxy, was found weakened, but still alive in mud near their home.

"It's a shock for everyone. Now the town is deciding what they can do for (the family)," CTV's Herb Luft told CTV News Channel Wednesday morning.

Residents of Saint-Jude planned to hold a vigil for the victims. No funeral arrangements have been made.

The family was well-known in the community. Prefontaine was an electrician and Charbonneau worked at a local daycare.

Geologists visited the area Wednesday to check for signs of erosion or further danger.

While the investigation is underway, geologists said Tuesday that the incident bore the hallmarks of "lateral spread," a type of sideways landslide.

Parts of the region sit on a type of clay that can liquefy under wet conditions. Heavy rain fell on the town over the weekend. But some in the community questioned why such an incident didn't happen last year when the region experienced a much wetter spring.

With a report from CTV Montreal's Herb Luft