Two days after Lac La Biche County mayor Omer Moghrabi said the region’ s “Doors are open,” the house is beginning to fill up.
Two days after Lac La Biche County mayor Omer Moghrabi said the region’ s “Doors are open,” the house is beginning to fill up.
Of the over 80,000 Fort McMurray residents that fled the city after a massive fire forced evacuation on Tuesday night, over 2,500 of them have registered at the Bold Center, with many more expected to arrive soon. Local officials estimate thousands more passed through the area on their way further south, and hundreds more unregistered evacuees are calling the region their temporary home away from Fort McMurray, 300 kilometres to the north.
Regular programming at the Bold Center has been cancelled due to the arrival of the evacuees, and space is filling up in the reception area with donations and supplies. Donations, of food, water, and other supplies are flooding in, while local volunteers and Red Cross officials work to collect and organize it all. Humane Society volunteers tend to people’ s furry best-friends. Other volunteers set up cots, cook food for hungry evacuees, and help register new arrivals and offer aid where needed.
Evacuee Joni Stryde was at the Bold Center with her family today. Though dealing with her current situation is causing her a lot of uncertainty and stress, she said seeing the massive effort in Lac La Biche to help evacuees has helped feel a little better.
“It’ s very heartwarming to see all the donations and everything,” she said. “It’ s wonderful.”
Other organizations do their part as well, turning the recreation and sport centre into a one-stop shop for all needs of the fire victims. Alberta Health Services employees help with medical needs, insurance companies help residents start insurance claims, and the local Mosque and Heritage Society collect even more donations from the community.
Meanwhile, weary Fort McMurray residents get some shut-eye on the Red Cross cots, sort through piles of donated clothes and supplies for what they need, check their phones for updates from home, and try to find something to keep occupied. Some are even joining the volunteer effort themselves, greeting new arrivals at the door and pointing them towards the registration area.
The hustle and bustle at the Bold Center is echoed in the streets of Lac La Biche. Downtown, traffic lines top hundreds of metres - a sight rarely seen in the region. Grocery store shelves empty and are refilled, scores of people and vehicles crowd the gas stations, and local businesses serve a sudden influx of customers in need.
The first of the evacuees to arrive were set up in local hotel and motel rooms, and regional campsites were offered to those travelling with RVs and tents. Those vacancies filled quickly, and since then, new arrivals have been given one of the few hundred cots at the Bold Center, or set up with local residents who have offered up their own homes to the evacuees. Lac La Biche County chief administrative officer Shadia Amblie said local efforts to take in evacuees have been going smoothly so far.
“We’ re doing fine, - we’ re doing well so far,” she said, adding that many county staff have been preparing for a situation like this one. “We were trained and ready for this.”
The efforts have gone far beyond just the hamlet of Lac La Biche. Volunteers and officials in Kikino and Buffalo Lake Métis settlements, Beaver Lake Cree Nation, Plamondon, and Boyle have offered up places for people to stay, feed weary travellers, collect donations of money and supplies, and hold fundraisers to help their northern neighbors. In an interview at the Bold Center, Lac La Biche-St. Paul-Two Hills MLA David Hanson, said the response in the region was inspiring, - and not at all unexpected.
“It’ s no surprise to me the way Lac La Biche has stepped up - they always do,” he said. “I’ m very impressed. All Albertans and Canadians are standing up to help out.”
