Mike Maloney and his wife Tessa check over their home as they return after being evacuated due to wildfires, in Fort McMurray Alberta, on Wednesday June 1, 2016.
Advertisement
Henry Velasquez wants to return to the place where his home once stood – someday, but not yet.
The massive wildfire destroyed about 2,400 structures nearly a month ago in Fort McMurray but 90 percent of the city remains intact. Thursday will see the neighbourhoods of Stone Creek, Parsons Creek, Timberlea, Eagle Ridge and Dickensfield repopulate.
In July or August, he’ll re-evaluate, he said.
“Every time we’d go somewhere on vacation and then we’d drive into the city you would come in and you would have the trees, and you would see the city lights”, she said.
Residents of some neighbourhoods in the northeastern Alberta city are being allowed to return today at 8 a.m. – the road blocks will be lifted and government reception centres will be open for business.
Unsafe toxic levels will also prevent as many as 2,000 residents from returning even though their homes were not damaged in the wildfire dubbed “The Beast”.
There is gas available in the city, and grocery stores have some supplies.
Speaking outside his house in downtown Fort McMurray, Mark Hebert was relieved to find his house in good shape, but his partner was anxious about air quality.
“It’s very hard to have to once again remove yourself from your life and have to go to an entirely new place after having done so already”, she said. “And if I stay, I stay”.
As climate change starts to bite Canada will have to set aside more money to deal with natural disasters, property insurers said earlier this month.
“I can’t really describe the feeling”, she said.
She thanked the crews who have worked to get the city running again – including a bylaw officer who rescued a hamster weeks after the fire and called the pet’s five-year-old owner with the good news.
Dozens of FirstOnSite workers have been working long days disposing of spoiled food, cleaning ventilation systems and removing smoky odours from upholstery and carpets.
“If you were to try to turn into Beacon Hill, there are government officials and police officers parked there, and no access”, said Wisker.
Enough food, drinking water and prescription medication to last up to 14 days.
Advertisement
“Getting life back to a degree of normalcy in the immediate (future) is the key, and obviously for those people who have lost their homes tragically it is to make sure they have the supports they need”, Scott Long, head of the Alberta Emergency Management agency, told reporters on the eve of the migration. “It is not a clean, safe, normal environment that you’re walking into”.
