Fort McMurray exodus widens as fires rage: A lot of people are ‘working to get you out’

[polly7]

CARRIE TAIT AND JUSTIN GIOVANNETTI
CONKLIN, Alta. — The Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, May 05, 2016 5:30AM EDT
Last updated Thursday, May 05, 2016 10:57AM EDT

• Evacuation order widened

• More oil sands projects cut production

• Emergency operations centre moved 300 km south

The growing wildfires consuming Fort McMurray have forced officials to vastly widen a mandatory evacuation order to neighbouring communities and move the city’s emergency operations centre for the second time in one day.

An aerial look at the Fort McMurray wildfire (CP Video)

The fires have also forced a handful of oil sands companies to halt bitumen production and shutter facilities.

The Fort McMurray fire: Here’s how you can help, and receive help

Officials ordered people to leave Anzac, Gregoire Lake Estates, and Fort McMurray First Nation late Wednesday. Anzac’s recreational centre, which is nearly 50 kilometres southeast of Fort Mac, was housing hundreds of evacuees from the embattled city prior to the most recent evacuation order.

Buses were expected to begin ferrying away residents covered by the widening evacuation order at midnight on Wednesday – only two hours after the mandatory evacuation orders were published.

Municipality moves emergency centre

The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, which encompasses the region, said late Wednesday it was moving its emergency operations centre to Lac La Biche, Alta., nearly 300 kilometres south of Fort McMurray.

Officials were previously stationed in Fort McMurray, but packed up the command centre when the fire made it unsafe. The operations centre was moved out of Fort McMurray Wednesday afternoon – a shift that was short-lived.

“Take comfort tonight knowing that your friends and family are safe,” the municipality said via Twitter early Thursday.

Lac La Biche is only 220 kilometres north of Edmonton. The original Fort McMurray evacuation order covered about 90,000 people.



Full article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/fort-mcmurray-exodus-swells-as-fires-rage-a-lot-of-people-are-working-to-get-you-out/article29883034/

[CanonRay]

1. Mother Earth fights back

best get out of the way.

[polly7]

2. A perfect storm of conditions: Here’s how the blaze reached Fort McMurray, and why it spread so fast

TU THANH HA

The Globe and Mail Last updated: Thursday, May 05, 2016 11:07AM EDT

Watch the wildfire raging along Highway 63 - VIDEO

The conditions, however, already had all the ingredients for the kind of fast-spreading wildfire that hours later would force nearly 90,000 people, including nine newborns in hospital, to flee on short notice from the Alberta oil town.

The weather, the type of trees in the local forest, the time of the year and the kind of fire propagation were all indicators that the flames would be hard to tame, jumping over the Athabasca and Hangingstone rivers as they spread northward into the city.

“The fire’s behaviour was beyond all control efforts,” Bernie Schmitte, wildfire manager at Alberta Agriculture and Forestry told reporters later in the night.

To make things worse, there had been an inversion, a weather condition where hot air at higher altitude traps down the smoke. However, by the end of the morning, the inversion reversed, Mr. Schmitte said, which would have fanned the flames and smoke further.

THE CROSSOVER

Brian Burnett, head instructor at Wildfire Specialists Inc., an Ontario training school, noted that the Fort McMurray area was experiencing a weather condition familiar to forest firefighters, the Crossover.

The Crossover happens when the numerical value for the ambient humidity is lower than the recorded temperature.

On Tuesday in Fort McMurray, while the mercury soared towards 30C, the humidity dropped to 15 per cent.

“It’s just a recipe for a wildfire. This is such a difficult situation,” Mr. Burnett said in an interview.

Such hot, dry conditions were made worse by the wind which pushed the flames toward the city.

Full article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/alberta/albertas-highway-of-fire/article29863650/

[polly7]

3. ‘Fort McMurray will rebuild’: Amid destruction, residents look to future

JUSTIN GIOVANNETTI AND CARRIE TAIT
ANZAC, ALTA. — The Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, May 04, 2016 9:18PM EDT
Last updated Thursday, May 05, 2016 8:10AM EDT

The wildfires ripping through Fort McMurray this week are tearing down homes, destroying businesses, and scattering the city’s residents across Alberta. For the evacuees, many of whom still do not know the fate of their property more than 30 hours after the fires breached city limits, the shock of this sudden loss is so fresh as to be almost unthinkable.

Fort McMurray evacuee stresses need for a second highway out of the city (The Globe and Mail) VIDEO

But for the almost 80,000 residents of Fort McMurray, a city that became the poster child for Alberta’s economic woes as the price of oil plummeted, it is a loss that comes in a year full of them: lost jobs, lost property values, lost opportunities.

Like many from his hometown, Harvey Sykes was pondering his future on Wednesday morning. Hours earlier, the only home he has ever known burned down.

Mr. Sykes’ house was the last trapper’s cabin in the Waterways neighbourhood. He was born in the house in 1952, and had lived there for 64 years. “And now I’m sure that’s gone. I drove by there this morning. I lost everything,” he said. “All I had a chance to take was a change of clothes and that was it.”

More than 90 per cent of Mr. Sykes’ neighbourhood was destroyed on Tuesday.

Albertans are no strangers to disaster. Flames ripped through the town of Slave Lake in 2011, destroying 433 buildings – about one-third of the community. In 2013, large swaths of southern Alberta disappeared under flood waters, including downtown Calgary. That disaster caused an estimated $5-billion in damages.

Now, after one of the largest evacuations in Canadian history, Fort McMurray’s residents remain undaunted. The same men and women who built some of the largest industrial projects in the country say they are convinced their town will rebuild quickly.

“I really don’t know what else to say,” said Mr. Sykes, a local Métis elder. “Fort McMurray will rebuild. We’re stubborn.”

Full article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/alberta/fort-mcmurray-will-rebuild-amid-destruction-residents-look-to-future/article29880685/

[KT2000]

4. agree about the need for 2 highways

anything can clog one highway and in a known fire zone it seems necessary.
Our peninsula in Washington is the same way - one way in and one way out.

[polly7]

5. Definitely. The picture a few days ago on the news of vehicles on #63

trying to escape was terrifying. Completely clogged ... movement shut down when vehicles ran out of fuel or quit. People were panicking and I don't blame them.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. We were in the Forks Fire on the Peninsula, in 1951.

I was a little kid and remember being in the back of large car, flames on both sides of the road, for what seemed like miles before we even hit the paved road.
We had been living in a small farmhouse in La Push area.
Ended up living in Port Angeles for awhile.

Yesterday it was reported there had been a fatal car crash on the Fort MacMurray road, clogged up the evacuation efforts for awhile......

[KT2000]

8. Sequim here

this hit me when I was going to an appointment on Bainbridge and a truck ran off the road at Sequim Bay Park. We were absolutely stuck. None of the back roads connect. I have told relatives that if the big earthquake hits - don't even come looking as we will be cut off if not sitting in the middle of the Strait.

I wonder if you were not on a logging road to get out of there. They locked them all several years ago but before that they were used by everyone to get around. That had to have been frightening.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. Yeah, we were on a logging road.

My Dad and my uncles made a living by "cutting shakes"....making cedar shingles from stumps/leftovers of the logging areas.
So I got to play in acres of the Olympic forest as a kid.
cool, eh?

At one time had considered Sequim as a retirement place because of the rain shadow effect.
You are in a lovely place.

[KT2000]

10. Yes - way cool!

My old gentleman friend started a business using the chips from cedar shingle mills (and other cedar operations) to make dog beds and later cedar oil by condensing the chips in a boiler. He lived on the Hoko-Ozette Rd and we went through the logging roads often, especially to get to Forks and La Push.
I moved here 33 years ago and got old here - didn't even have to move to a retirement community!!

[shenmue]

7. BBC article

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36215046