Yellowknife Mayor Rebecca Alty has shared some words of advice with city residents regarding their return to their homes.
“If you’re driving, please do drive with care and caution. There are still a number of firefighters working on the southern part of the highway and the South Slave Fire. So keep your eyes out, reduce your speed if you see people out working. Bison this time of year can also be a challenge for drivers because it gets darker earlier than in the summer, and then there’s not the snow yet so they can be harder to see, so make sure you’re driving to the conditions.
If you’re flying, I know there’s lots of people who have pre-registered. If you haven’t pre-registered yet, I really encourage you to do that because the GNWT wants to make sure that those flights are as full as possible. I know a lot of people have pre-registered and haven’t heard back yet; once you are put on a flight, the GNWT will contact you and let you know what time and where you have to be.
The set up for flights is a little similar in that, it’s not like you’re going to go to the airport and check in, you’ll go to, for lack of a better term, a muster point, just like how St. John, you went there and had transportation to the airport, the same thing will happen here. They’re setting up at hotels, so people will meetup at that hotel, get checked in, and be bussed to the airport. So as more flights become available, the GNWT can get more aircraft, they’re adding flights on, booking people on those. So stay tuned to either a text message or an email. If you have pre-registered, they should be contacting you soon.”
Mayor Alty added that once people start arriving back in the city, that they should have some patience with grocery stores and other services. She explains that stores that have remained open throughout the evacuation have been operating with minimal staff, and will take some time to be back to their regular capacity.
