As the provincial state of emergency approaches its third week, Prince George is hosting more than 9,000 wildfire evacuees – over 10% of the city’s population.
Emergency operations have been deployed, as have hundreds of volunteers. Residents are taking friends, family and total strangers into their homes.
But after more than a week of frenzied activity, many are starting to wonder: how long is this going to last?
“In our meetings with BC Wildfire Services, they’re saying we’re in for the long haul so I’m not sure what that means,” Mayor Lyn Hall says. “We don’t have any time limit on this. We’re still under evacuation order in Williams Lake. We still have issues with forest fires.”
On Sunday’s daily update about the wildfire situation, Robert Turner, Deputy Assistant Minister for Emergency Management BC, said the agency expects to be “in response mode” for 60 days.
Hall says the City is already looking into what it will take to sustain their current operations. If Prince George is still hosting evacuees next month, the City will have to look at some alternate accommodations for them.
“If we go on into the middle of August, we’re in Prince George Senior Secondary, we’re in the College, we’re in the university – they’re going to start to spark up their operation for the fall. We have to start looking at alternate locations because we can’t impede the progress of education in our community.”
He says there are other options available, including the Kin Centres and the Conference and Civic Centre.
As for costs to the City, Hall says they’re not the most pressing concern right now.
“We keep pretty close tabs on what we’re having to spend as a municipality but, you know, we’ve been through this before with the ice jam and the Province will pick up the tab. There’s a tremendous amount of dollars and a tremendous amount of person power that gets thrown into this.”
Hall says he’s immensely proud of the city’s response to the crisis so far and has faith in its continued resilience.
“The fact of the matter is that we’ve got some real challenges on our plate. We’re thinking about how long can we sustain this, what do we have to do to increase or decrease our resources. We’re asking the same question but I guess that’s in Mother Nature’s hands: when are we going to be able to send the folks from Williams Lake home? Because they want to go home. They didn’t want to be here in the first place under these circumstances.”
Until that question is answered, Hall’s advice to the people of Prince George is: “Continue to do what you’re doing.”