“It’s eerie coming in”.
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“It’s wonderful. The ice is still in my fridge, it doesn’t even smell like smoke”, said Dawson Kohl, 47, who rents the top floor of a house downtown.
“Just like everybody else, we just had to bail out at the last minute. See ya. Bye bye, ‘” she said.
“We’re lucky because we have a home to come back to”.
An area referred to as Zone One – the neighborhoods of Lower Townsite, Anzac, Fort McMurray 468 First Nation and Gregoire Lake Estates – were available for residents’ return Wednesday.
Early in the morning, police began removing the barricades that had kept residents out of the city. “But I think, all in all, everybody will survive”.
“We’re going to be keeping him out for a little bit”.
In a video posted Tuesday, Byrne can be seen climbing a ladder to a “Welcome to Fort McMurray” road sign, where he covers the word “to” with a sign that says “home”.
A day away from the first batch of Fort McMurray residents returning home, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley is defending the re-entry plan despite some opposition.
The massive wildfire burning in Alberta, Canada is now nicknamed “The Beast”.
She thanked everyone in the northern Alberta region for their bravery and patience.
Notley also said there’s a need for a more national discussion on disaster mitigation.
That’s with the exception of Beacon Hill, Waterways, and Abasand, which have been rendered unlivable.
The re-entry is happening in phases this week. She stopped by the reception centre to pick up a cleaning kit before going to her house. Many of Fort McMurray’s tourism operators have been affected. An expected crush of traffic failed to materialise as residents slowly made their way back to the devastated area. There was not a lot of dust and the freezer was still frozen.
“Officials estimate that roughly 7,500 people have arrived to date so far”, the premier said early Wednesday afternoon.
Highway 63 saw numerous vehicles backed up at checkpoints for many hours before the roadblocks were moved aside.
“It’s been a hard month for everybody, right. We left everything there”, said Ed O’Keefe, as he waited to enter the city.
By 11 a.m. Wednesday, 30,000 welcome packs had been handed out.
“If the air quality goes to crap, I’m not sticking around”, he said.
“With the world’s focus on Fort McMurray, many travelers have wondered whether it is safe to travel throughout the rest of Alberta”, said Travel Alberta CEO Royce Chwin. “We’re asking residents to respect that”. “Officials are testing daily and will be testing throughout the whole process, I suspect that the remediation efforts within those neighbourhoods will be focused on enhancing people’s ability to return as a priority”.
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The RCMP is increasing their presence on highways between Edmonton and Fort McMurray.
