All of Fort McMurray Being Evacuated
Tuesday, May 3, 2016 @ 6:57 PM
Ft. McMurray, Alberta- The wildfire that has consumed some neighbourhoods in and around Ft. McMurray has now forced the evacuation of the entire town.
The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo posted this notice on its facebook page :
As the flames rip through the town where many B.C. residents are working, residents are turning to the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo’s facebook page to find a place where they can get shelter.
Traffic out of Fort McMurray is a long string of vehicles, snaking its way to safety.
So far, there have been no reports of injuries.
Comments
Friend of mine just sent me pictures he was on his way back to camp after days off on the charter bus when the driver ordered them to evacuate the bus and run as fast as they could within a minute of evacuating the bus it was completely on fire he made the last plane out of Fort Mac before the airport shut down to civilian use. His camp 90 miles from the city has been turned into an evacuation centre housing some 3000 people atm
My heart goes out to them all. Just picture all of Prince George heading down 97 getting out of town. About the same number of people. We really have to feel for all of them, loss of jobs, now loss of possible homes and everything they own. Let’s hope for rain and calm winds tonight.
Really puts it into perspective when you think of it–especially if we all had to funnel through the one bridge!!
Two bridges south!
Tens of thousands of peoples homes are at risk! Hotels burning down, Forests, cars, homes, businesses, all being burned to the ground. It’s quite literally hell on earth!
So, where in hell is the Prime Minister? Why has he not ordered the military in to assist? Why is he not on his taxpayer funded jet winging his way to Alberta?
Obviously he is far too busy having his picture taken with Prince Harry at the Toronto Invictus Games! Doing pushups for the Press is obviously far more important than the pending destruction of an Alberta City, an Alberta Oil city at that!
Justin, you just failed a major test of your leadership! It’s official, you are a MORON!
Those of you that vote for this moron must be so proud!
Really now, Hart Guy, what could Justin do if he was there? What could any PM do?
Get on a plane, show up, show that he actually gives a damn about the people of Fort McMurray and the people of Alberta! Rally the troops, so to speak! Sounds simple, even for Justin!
And then we would have the same people on here posting about how he is there for a photo op …..!!!!!
No matter what, that is all you guys do and you are not man nor woman enough to admit to that.
Hart Guy … sounds simple because it comes from a simple guy like you.
So Trudeau offering to help any way the government can is what then? Or you didn’t read that, or ignored it..
Trudeau going to Alberta right now would just be a distraction they don’t need at this point. Harper waited a week before going to Slave Lake when half that town burnt in a similar wildfire.
No one in Fort Mac or the rest of Alberta has asked for the military to be brought in.
Your post is from 8:32 pm.
Here is a tweet from JT presumably at 3:30PM eastern time, 2 hours before your comment:
My thoughts are with people affected by the fire in Fort McMurray tonight. Stay safe and remember to follow evacuation orders. #ymmfire
3:30 PM – 3 May 2016
Then, 3 hours later is this tweet.
Tonight I spoke with Premier Notley and offered our government’s support to the people of Fort McMurray. We stand ready to help. #ymmfire 6:21 PM – 3 May 2016
So, I take it that you missed his news conference this morning regarding the fires and devastation in Ft. Mac , where he started with a joke, extended good wishes to Star Wars fans first:
“It’s uh extremely wonderful to see everyone in such a good mood celebrating Star Wars day today! May the Forth be with you!”
How very Prime Ministerial!
I’m sure that the people of Ft. Mac really appreciated Justin’s light hearted joke! At a time when peoples lives have been torn apart and their future is uncertain at best, Justin felt it was appropriate to address the news media with a joke first!
Let’s hope we get enough rain again this year , so as to not be threatened as they are . Let’s hope we have enough bright civil engineers building fire breaks . It’s hard to believe with all the idle machinery that they haven’t built defendable fire breaks , say , a year ago . But , then , the rain always comes eh ? Oh well , I guess insurance is cheaper . I feel really sorry for the plants and animals
Ataloss, you feel sorry for the plants and animals? Me too, but I also feel sorry for the families that are losing their homes, their livelihood, their businesses, their town!
I also feel sorry for all of the birds and bats killed by windfarms and solar panels!
Ataloss, do you?
Yes I feel sorry for the plants and animals . They can not evacuate . They don’t have insurance that could rebuilt their homes , if that were possible . And , yes , I feel sorry for all the birds killed by wind mills . And the other thing you don’t understand that is different from solar panels , solar concentrated reflective mirror turbine driven electric farms .
Its so dry out there right now that this could easily be PG after a few days of plus 30 and some wind.
PG has huge vulnerabilities through West Cranbrook Hill and North Nechako from the west; and Malaspina from the south IMO. The interface would be unstoppable in a full on forest fire.
I don’t think a fire could make much headway in the bowl in a worst case scenario because we have a world class municipal water supply, but suffocation from the smoke would be what does us in.
Where would everyone stay? Every school in 300km would have to be taken over for shelters and that likely wouldn’t be enough. How would all those people be transported… can Edmonton even handle the influx from Fort Mac let alone Quesnel handle a PG evacuation? Has anyone even thought that far ahead for PG?
The Regional Distract is in charge of disaster planning.
sorry for the plants and animals? You are a tool ataloss. This fire has jumped hiways and rivers, doubt a firebreak would help. You never cease to amaze how bizarre your brain pan is.
I was recently in Alberta and found it troubling that every small town had basically the PG radio stations and programing with the name of what ever town one was passing through spliced in. Almost as bad as the headliner musical act that forgets what town they are in… ‘Hello… oh ya Woods Buffalo’….
So I found the most interesting quote of the night on the National where a guy basically calls the media out on their synergistic consolidation of news rooms in the monopoly mainstream media world.
He basically says, ‘its an epic emergency, and we can’t get any information on whats going on… basically all the radio stations are just playing music.’
That about covers it for the role modern media in this country. Pre-packaged centralized editorials and newsrooms from 500 miles away don’t really cover local issues that well. By tomorrow the editorials will be written in Toronto and Vancouver and news through those news rooms will start to trickle out of Fort Mac.
One would think an emergency like this would have around the clock coverage full of up to the minute information on the path of the fire as well as evacuation procedures.
Its moments like this when one should really see the value in having on the ground local media. Its moments like this when municipalities should see the importance of supporting local ownership for local media IMO.
One would need CNN to do 24Hr media. Be it a city on fire or a cat down a well.
No, a community does not need CNN. A local newsroom with boots on the ground that has the ability to cut into regular programing to provide the service that is expected of them in an emergency is all a community (aka a city) really expects.
Right now across Canada the most all communities have is airwaves full of advertisement revenue companies that promote group think propaganda, rather than an independent voice or a public service for the community. Heck most communities (like Kamloops) don’t even have a local daily newspaper anymore….
You are mistaken. Canada has Global, CBC, CTV, CITY and now even local internet up starts who are at such major disasters to appease all the gawkers around the immediate area plus the rest of the country.
This is news. This is what they do. This is how they make money.
Those are not the people to help in such situations. There are others 100 times more capable of providing that help
There are – or are supposed to be – emergency channels available to let people know they are under evacuation orders, which areas are on highest priority alert, what the routes are to take, how those without vehicles can do to evacuate, how help can be gotten for those who are unable to deal with evacuating themselves due to age, illness and other challenges they may have to prevent them from moving on their own.
Hart Guy–I know it hurts since Steve has moved on.
oldman1, for 6 months now, we have had a self-absorbed “missing in action” twit at the helm and you bring up Steve? Come on, old man, you have to be able to do better than that!
Justin is a puppet on a string and whoever is pulling his strings is doing a really crappy job!
i bet you have a Trudeau pillow that you cry yourself to sleep hugging every night..
Gopg2015 the Regional District is not in charge of disaster planning for the City only for the area outside the city limits.
Yes, you are right.
So, if the City, with a similar population to the Wood Buffalo Regional Municipality as well as a similar relatively vast area, where would people go if the City, or major parts of it were to be required to evacuate?
Any emergency preparedness plan whether small or large should have a list of resources that can assist dealing with the cause of the emergency, the evacuation and all that entails as well as assistance.
Mutual aid is one of the basic tools which should be available in any emergency and it should be included in any best practices emergency preparedness plans.
If a fire of the size of the one in Fort McMurray were to engulf major parts of the City of PG, what resources would we have right from our own City resources, to the Regional District’s, to the Province’s and to Canada’s when it is being asked by the province to assist?
Who is planning for that? Who is practicing for that? Who is in charge of such plans? Who is in charge of making commitments to lend aid, even if it is not for their own little fiefdom?
Who is best qualified to take charge? Emergencies are no time for jurisdictional disputes. Those have to be worked out before the emergency takes place.
The City webpage states that the PG Fire Chief is the Emergency Program Coordinator and chair of the Emergency Planning Committee which includes the City, RCMP, Fire and Ambulance officials.
Should the City be shut down, the Hospital evacuated, is the PG Fire Chief going to get on the phone and call Michael Higgins at the Regional District if they can assist? Ask him which routes are safe to travel through once the evacuees are out of the city limits?
How is it all going to work?
Who at the City can answer that so that it will reassure people here that if Fort McMurray would happen here we would have the best coordinated effort assisting the residents to safety?
Now that we have seen Fort McMurray, do we need to regroup and determine the risk this City is in should such weather occur here and determine our state of preparedness?
What are you babbling about. Are you saying there is no planning? One evidence of planning is the forest interface thinning. There is planning and plans made up, they are evolving all the time. In the past I have been involved with this planning.
About 25 years ago there was a forest fire that threatened College Hts. Fire came right up to the edge of properties then there was a wind shift that stopped the advance. College was evacuated, town firefighters piled in and water bombers.
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