Prince George Emergency Reception Centre

Prince George, B.C. – Prince George Mayor Lyn Hall  says  there are now   nine thousand plus evacuees  from the Cariboo wildfires  in Prince George  and  the  Emergency Operations Centre is  preparing for  the next steps.

“Logistically  we are in pretty good shape”  Mayor Hall told the  evacuees who attended last evening’s town  hall session, “We’re talking about how we can continue to sustain this  and we know  where we’re at with CNC.”

The College of New Caledonia  is the Emergency Reception Centre, and  is providing  lodging for  hundreds of evacuees inside the college  and  to  those who  are camped or in  RV’s on  its grounds, but it won’t   be long before  the College will also  be expected to accept students.

“School is going to start   in the early part of August where students register,  so  we understand that”  says Mayor Hall.   He says  the Emergency Operations Team is making plans daily  .  He also  said  there is a possibility those in RV’s may be  moved from the CNC   grounds to another location,  although it is  too early to  give specifics.

One of the issues that has arisen for evacuees is the food vouchers.

Most  evacuees don’t  have the  capacity to store  the amount of food  a single voucher is  intended to buy,  so   Mayor Hall says the  Emergency Operations Team  is  trying to work  with the  Province   and other organizations as well as the  vendors,  to see if those vouchers  can be broken down into smaller  amounts so  evacuees  can buy  just what they need for a day or two. “We knew   there would be some bumps along the way” said Mayor Hall,  “We need to know  about those bumps  and one of the biggest  ones  we are  trying to take care of  and streamlining is  our voucher process.”  He says they are looking at issuing 14 day vouchers to spare evacuees from having to  return  to  CNC to  renew  their  registration  “Our hands are somewhat tied, because we  can only get so much  flexibility  from  the  various  emergency services organizations that we deal with , but we are trying desperately to streamline this entire process for  you and that has  to be one of the most onerous  we have so far.”