As evacuees from several NWT communities spread out across northern Alberta, officials with the Grande Prairie Regional Emergency Partnership say nearly 200 residents have made their way to the Grande Prairie region following an influx of wildfire evacuation orders over the weekend.
Reception Centre Manager Brian Ballard says they opened the reception centre at the Alliance Church in the city, and have seen a fairly steady stream of evacuees since mid-evening Sunday. However, he adds resources are still being put into place locally, and they will work diligently to get the needs of evacuees met.
“We got two plane loads in from Hay River, which is people from Hay River and Fort Smith, we also got some off the highways,” says Ballard. “We registered a total of 180 people and put them in hotel rooms, [but] we are out of hotel rooms, so anyone else coming here looking for rooms, we don’t have them at the moment.”
Fort Smith residents were the first to be notified of an evacuation order on Saturday afternoon, with those living in Hay River, along with the communities of Enterprise and K’Atl’odeeche receiving an evacuation order mid-day Sunday. Ballard says while they’re prepared for as many eventualities as possible, the main goal as of Monday is to register as many people as possible, not only to get an accurate head count, but to make sure no one has been left behind.
“It was hectic, because with airplanes you get them all at once, and now we are set up to register who is here who booked their own room. We just want to register them to get them fed and look after them for the time that they are here,” Ballard adds.
You can find more on the Grande Prairie reception centre, including contact information on the Grande Prairie Emergency Response Partnership website.
