Hay River has joined Fort Smith in offering refuge to evacuees from severe flooding in Fort Simpson.
Twenty-seven evacuees from the Deh Cho community arrived in Hay River on May 15, and all but two returned home on May 19.
“Fort Smith has been doing the heavy lifting with supporting their evacuation, but they were filled to capacity for (that) weekend and we had means at that point after moving through our breakup to help support the cause,” said Glenn Smith, the senior administrative officer with the Town of Hay River. “And we’re very willing to do so.”
All the evacuees stayed in hotel rooms paid for by the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs.
“They came directly from Fort Simpson on a charter,” said Smith. “The initial evacuation was people going to Fort Smith and then this was obviously towards the end. It was Saturday (May 15) that these people decided that they wanted to leave Fort Simpson wherever they were being accommodated.”
They flew back home on a charter.
“We certainly recognize that Fort Simpson has been hit very hard and obviously we were dealing with our own breakup situation and uncertainty on how that might turn out,” said Smith. “Luckily, things were relatively good and we were able to provide our resources to help Fort Simpson for the accommodation of the evacuees.”
The town’s role in helping the evacuees involved co-ordination, meals, transportation, care and comfort, and recreational activities.
Smith acknowledged the assistance of the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority in dealing with the evacuees.
During the online meeting of town council on May 18, Coun. Keith Dohey thanked everyone who helped the evacuees.
“It’s definitely not something you ever want to see happening in another community,” Dohey said of the flooding in Fort Simpson. “But with the realization that it could just as easily be us in that situation, it’s nice that we were able to host people from those other communities that can come here, and we can hopefully take some of the stress and burden away from them.”