標題: Slave Lake evacuees wonder what's left [打印本頁] 作者: tiffiant 時間: 2011-5-17 08:09 標題: Slave Lake evacuees wonder what's left
Slave Lake evacuees wonder what's left
Parts of the town look like the moon
Mike Lloyd May 17, 2011 07:32:03 AM
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SLAVE LAKE, AB. (NEWS1130) - Many people evacuated from Slave Lake, Alberta have no way of knowing if their houses and belongings have been turned to piles of ash.
Much of the town is devastated with some neighbourhoods resembling the surface of the moon.
CityTV's Sarah Offin just returned home to Edmonton after being in Slave Lake. "It's something that was very difficult to digest. It was a very surreal experience there yesterday, the twisted steel, rubble, hot ash and flare-ups. Even while we were there, they were still trying to fight this blaze."
Thousands of people have spent a second night in arenas and community halls in neighbouring towns like Athabasca and as far away as Edmonton 250 km southeast.
"People are very concerned. Right now, of course, they are wondering if their homes or businesses have survived and when they can go back. There are not a lot of answers."
Today, about 120 firefighters from BC and 80 from Ontario will be joining the battle against the Slave Lake wildfires.
"It's still a very scary situation there right now," says Offin. "To the east 20 square kilometres are still burning out of control. To the south 150 square kilometres remain out of control. About 1000 firefighters are there now, about 100 helicopters and about 20 air tankers."
Slave Lake's government centre, Town Hall, library, and radio station and dozens of homes have been destroyed.
Slave Lake mayor Karina Pillay-Kinnee says luckily the flames did spare some crucial buildings.
"The key thing is we're fortunate with all the key, major infrastructure that's still standing [like] our schools, our hospital, our RCMP office, our banks, other critical services."
Many other communities in northern Alberta are also being threatened by wildfires. Evacuation orders are in place for Martin Lake, Loon Lake and Chisholm, where a big fire in 2001 destroyed several homes.
Evacuation advisories are also in effect for a handful of smaller communities, and oil and gas companies have been forced to shut down some operations in the danger zone.
Alberta has created a special disaster-recovery team to help deal with the needs of the fire evacuees over the coming days, weeks and months ahead.
The Red Cross has also stepped in to do what it can for those forced from their homes.作者: tiffiant 時間: 2011-5-17 08:10
