Fort McMurray resident Natasha Bowman has never seen anything like the wildfire currently burning her city.
She and her family were some of about 60,000 people ordered to evacuate earlier today, and was among the first to arrive at the Bold Center in Lac La Biche County, where county officials have set up a reception area for evacuees.
Fort McMurray resident Natasha Bowman has never seen anything like the wildfire currently burning her city.
She and her family were some of about 60,000 people ordered to evacuate earlier today, and was among the first to arrive at the Bold Center in Lac La Biche County, where county officials have set up a reception area for evacuees.
Bowman’ s home is in Gregoire, a neighbourhood on the south end of Fort McMurray, and one of the first to be given an evacuation notice earlier this week. She described the chaos in Fort McMurray today as evacuees tried to flee, turning Highway 63 into gridlock both Northbound and Southbound. In the fray she and other members of her extended family (about a dozen) were separated, with some ending up going north, and some travelling south. She arrived in Lac La Biche shortly after 7 pm, and said the situation in the city on the way out was dire.
“It's jam packed, everybody was trying to get out,” she said. “I've seen some pretty big fires, but I've never seen one where the whole town is burning up. I've never seen anything like this before.”
She arrived at the Bold Center shortly after 7 pm, where she received instructions on where to call about getting accommodations, including local hotels, motels, campgrounds, and more. She said she was provided with several options.
“We’ re the first family here, they said. They’ ve been really great - they gave us numbers for campgrounds, hotels, they gave us water, they’ re trying to get us some food,” she said. “Everybody’ s been really great so far since we got in town. We’ re blessed for that.”
While she’ s figured out temporary accommodations for the time being, her thoughts are still back in her home in Fort McMurray. She said she isn’ t sure anything of hers will be left once the flames are extinguished.
“We probably don’ t have anything to go home to now, everything’ s burning flat to the ground,” she said adding that for now she’ s just looking for some food and some sleep. “I guess now it’ s just seeing about getting somewhere to sleep, getting a little bite to eat, because we haven’ t eaten anything all day, we’ ve hardly slept.”
County residents able to offer assistance to evacuees are directed to call (780) 623-6369.
The POST will update this story as information becomes available.
