Prince George, B.C. – During the peak of the  evacuations  from the  Cariboo,  Prince George welcomed and provided services to more than 10 thousand people,  it was  a herculean effort  which is gaining praise for  the City,  the volunteers and Mayor Lyn Hall.

Prince George City Council   has received  two letters of  thank you  from  evacuees.  One from  four Chiefs of the NStQ Treaty Group  in Wiliams Lake,  the other from the   Chair of the Jehovah’s Witnesses  Disaster Relief Committee.

.A number of  people who had travelled to Prince George for a Jehovah’s Witnesses  convention, were stranded here  when their communities were evacuated .  DRC Chair Dale Johnson wrote  “Thank you for the care and concern you showed  when visiting our evacuee site.”

The NStQ Chiefs  wrote “The wildfire situation has been and still remains a very challenging time for our members.  Welcoming our people into your community and looking after them made their stay away from home much easier to deal with.   While it is impossible to know every person who has provided care to our NStQ community members, we would like to extend our appreciation to them and ask that you widely share this letter with those who have helped.
We greatly appreciate all the help that you have provided and continue to provide in this time of uncertainty.”

Mayor Lyn Hall has received praise  from his Council colleagues  for  his tireless efforts during the crisis “You were one of the faces of support in our community” said Councillor Brian Skakun “There were so many people who saw you at different venues, you took the  time to talk to people in parking lots,   the mall, it didn’t matter where it was.”

Mayor Hall   says  Prince George’s efforts have  set a new bar for emergency operations ” It was a tremendous  amount of work.”   He  said  the Emergency Operations team  deserves credit  “That entire group and  many in administration staff, really did an unbelievable  job for the evacuees during the entire process.”

The services provided to the  evacuees  amounted to running a city within  a city.   The effort  so effective, Prince George was visited by  other emergency  operations  ” We had Red Cross  from  across the country, people from Dawson Creek and Terrace and people from all  over the Cariboo  and the southern part of the province (came here) to take a  look at what we were doing, and I  think we  really set the mark and set the template for  what can be used  in , God forbid,  future disasters and that was really important.”