Fort Mac

[cristycurves]

It's heartbreaking to watch a town burn to the ground, hopefully those with extra will be giving. It is times like these when we all need to help. Of course I worry about the animals, as most shelters can't accommodate pets, and the wildlife have few places to flee. Very sad situation.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/alberta-wildfire-science-background-1.3565932

 

[GoDeep]

Very sad to see the devastation happen live.

 

[Al Bumin]

 

[Anonymous69]

Did a smoker flicked his cigarette without thinking again :don'twantto-see:/

 

[oldguyzer]

I have an old friend - she was an MPA in Vancouver I used to see years ago - who moved to Fort Mac and she texted to say her house and business are bruned down. Heartbreaking.

Hope insurance does what it is intended to, but I bet the insurance lawyers are already talking about "acts of God" which are not covered by policies.

 

[RayFinkel]

I gave 2 dollars to the Red Cross at the LCBO today. :YMPARTY:


I would've given $100 to send brown people back to India or Paki land.

 

[Esco!]

I gave 2 dollars to the Red Cross at the LCBO today. :YMPARTY:


I would've given $100 to send brown people back to India or Paki land.

:LMAO:

 

[Esco!]

That'll teach them to live in Ft. McMurray

 

[Andy_for_pay]

Esco! is the type of guy that bleaches his anus..... If u drift catch my.





edit: my condolences for the people of FMac

 

[Esco!]

RayFinkel (AKA Andy-For-Pay) video from a young age. Even back then he had a problem dealing with girls :biggrin2:

 

[Vince_ii]

 

[Vince_ii]

 

[Almighty]

[h=1]B.C. wildfire expected to cross into Alberta today[/h]
[h=3]B.C. firefighters will continue to fight fire in Alberta, so Alberta can focus on Fort McMurray blaze[/h]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/brit...expected-to-burn-into-alberta-today-1.3568327

 

[Butch]

 

[cristycurves]

if you can or want to help here's how

https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/want-to-help-those-fleeing-fort-mcmurray-heres-how/

 

[Bloopk]

I's getting worse.

LIVE: Alberta wildfire could double in size todayAnother 4,000 residents, who have taken shelter at oilsands work camps north of Fort McMurray, are scheduled to leave today.

• PHOTOS: Inside the Fort McMurray neighbourhood destroyed by wildfires
• Stunning time-lapse video shows man's home go up in flames
• Fort McMurray looks ‘like a war zone’ — residents get first view of burned city

 

[Bloopk]

[h=1]Cuddles the dog rescued in Fort McMurray wildfire after being trapped for 36 hours[/h]A good samaritan, who was still in Fort McMurray, rescued Cuddles after busting down the doors into an apartment.

CALGARY—After being trapped for more than 36 hours in a downtown Fort McMurray apartment, Cuddles the dog was rescued by a good samaritan who hadn’t yet evacuated the burning city.
On Wednesday, Allison Wiseman, who had fled town for Red Deer, called for help on social media after she learned her dog, Cuddles, had been left behind as its caretakers were barred from re-entering the city.
Wiseman said people called from coast to coast to offer a hand.
“Complete strangers had called from Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and out east and west,” she said. “There was just so many people offering rewards.”
But, turns out Wiseman’s old high school classmate — who requested to be anonymous — was still in town when he received a call from her cousin.

“He was still in Fort Mac helping as much people as he could,” she said.
The two then connected over FaceTime to ensure he was at the right complex.
“I said, ‘Break the door down — you got to do what you got to do,’” Wiseman said. “I said I’ll pay for it — I don’t care.”

 

[Bloopk]

Pray for rain.


Rain is the only thing that can stop the wildfire ravaging Fort McMurray.

The blaze intensified Friday, and was expected to double in size overnight to 2,000 square kilometres — three times larger than Edmonton — with shifting winds pushing it to the northeast.

While that should take the bulk of the flames away from communities, it will likely move into heavily forested territory where there’s even more fuel for it to grow.

By Friday afternoon, 490 fire fighters were fighting the blaze with the help of air tankers.

But Chad Morrison, Alberta’s senior manager for wildfire prevention, said there are no tankers, no firebreaks, that can stop this fire.

Despite a 40-per-cent possibility of rain over the weekend, Morrison said it was too early to say if the weather will provide any relief.

“We are seeing, in the longer term forecast, that at least we will have cooler conditions towards that Sunday and Monday period,” he said. “But, to be direct, we really need to get through Friday and Saturday and see where the fire is at.”

Friday’s goal was to fly 5,500 evacuees out of northern work camps, followed by another 4,000 on Saturday.

Officials had also hoped to start bringing them south on Highway 63 on Thursday, but worsening conditions scuttled those plans.

A window of opportunity to restart the operation opened Friday morning.

The convoy of vehicles — cars, trucks, RVs, even horse trailers — began early. Snaking its way through the smoke-choked town with a police escort, it moved slowly toward a road block 25 kilometres south of the city.

There, vehicles were greeted with free fuel before heading to their next destination, some honking and yelling their thanks to police. A horse whinnied, its head jutting from a trailer.

Drivers in the first few vehicles that made the drive down Highway 63 and through Fort McMurray as part of the RCMP convey described smoke so thick they felt their way forward as much as drove.

“It was like a war zone this morning,” said Bill Glynn, a tradesman who lives in Edmonton but had spent a month working in Fort McMurray when the fire hit. “Those people (who live in Fort McMurray) are going back to an atrocity.”

As winds picked up around noon, 30-metre-tall flames rose above the sides of the road. With travellers under threat and visibility reduced, RCMP officers halted vehicles, awaiting safer conditions.

It was 2 p.m. when convoys slowly began to emerge again at the road block, appearing out of a wall of smoke. By 3 p.m., 1,200 vehicles had left the camps, heading south on Highway 63.

But some evacuees, like Duane Aubin, didn’t even know they had to register to join the convoy.

Aubin said late Friday he was waiting for the early crush of vehicles to dissipate before trying his luck in the RCMP convoy.

“We’re stuck here. All I’m looking at is a mushroom cloud going up into the sky,” Aubin said Friday afternoon in a phone interview from Beaver River Executive Lodge.

For now, he’s focused on communicating with family, taking stock of paperwork and documents, and closely watching social media and the news for updates on the fire and evacuation.

On Friday afternoon, Wildrose leader and Fort McMurray resident Brian Jean, still emotional from the destruction of his own house, found hope in the estimated 85 per cent of homes that haven’t been lost.

He said key infrastructure such as the water treatment plant, hospital, recreation centre and city hall, as well as a large number of private homes and apartments, have escaped damage.

Since Monday, firefighters have been working 14-hour days, sometimes longer. Often, they’ve been forced to camp in different places each night, sometimes evacuated from areas in which it’s too smoke-filled to sleep.

While the focus remains on fighting the blaze and getting everyone to safety, the province is already taking tentative steps toward rebuilding.

Premier Rachel Notley has established a recovery task force to deal with the needs of affected communities and guide the resumption of municipal, economic and business activities.

On Friday, cabinet also allocated $200 million toward a disaster recovery program for the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, and financial relief of $1,250 per adult and $500 for each dependent. Officials hope the money will start flowing to evacuees on Wednesday.

Fort McMurray Mayor Melissa Blake is also looking toward rebuilding, though she knows the community will be different when the crisis is over.

“I would say that the folks in my community are stronger, bolder, braver and more prone to succeed, and these setbacks aren’t going to stop anybody who came (to Fort McMurray) with that kind of spirit in the first place,” she said Friday.

“I think it will just be a stronger community when we come out of this.”

But the city isn’t out of danger yet. RCMP Sgt. Jack Poitras said the fire is unlike anything he has seen in his 23-year career.

Poitras said work is being done to keep the flames from reaching potentially volatile sites, such as the Nexen facility at Long Lake; an explosion there would have a 14-km radius, making efforts to protect it and other industrial sites essential.

Prompted by a hot, dry forecast, the province issued an Alberta-wide ban on the use of off-road recreational vehicles Friday, adding to the provincewide fire ban.

In the face of the crisis, people from across the country have banded together in what the president of the Canadian Red Cross says is an unprecedented “Canadian moment,” donating $30 million by Friday morning to the wildfire relief effort.

The federal and Alberta governments have promised to match those donations.

“Canadians are collectively coming together to show their care and compassion,” Conrad Sauve said Friday.

“We have over 100,000 Canadians that have come to us with texts to donate. We’re getting offers from every part of the country, including corporate Canada in terms of workplace (fundraising) campaigns.”

About 14,000 families in need from the Fort McMurray area have registered with the Red Cross and that number is expected to grow.

The money is used to mobilize and provide support Red Cross volunteers who are helping evacuees, and provide basic goods to people fleeing the fire.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale called the Fort McMurray blaze “an absolute beast of a fire,” and one of the worst ever seen.

Federal Conservative interim leader MP Rona Ambrose stopped by the Northlands evacuation centre Friday morning, promising to keep attention on rebuilding Fort McMurray even after the devastation falls off the front page.

“Everyone is doing as much as they have to right now,” she said. “But it’s going to take months, if not years, to rebuild Fort McMurray.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that now is not the time for him to visit the ravaged Alberta community, but promised to visit the region in the near future when the situation has calmed down.

Files from Otiena Ellwand, Keith Gerein, Dave Lazzarino, Paige Parsons, Elise Stolte, Graham Thomson, Canadian Press

https://www.torontosun.com/2016/05/...ected-to-double-in-size-overnight-experts-say

 

[cristycurves]

Thank you for posting those updates Bloopk praying for sure, and giving what I can, as are many others. We surely need a miracle.

 

[Esco!]

CNN: 1,600 homes and businesses destroyed so far