Returning home a huge relief to evacuees

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This article was published 23/06/2018 (2133 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nearly 700 residents of Little Grand Rapids returned home this weekend after spending about a month living in Winnipeg hotels while their northern community was ravaged by wildfires; Maureen Leveque wasn’t one of them.

While most houses in the fly-in community about 280 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg were spared significant damage by the fires, which engulfed 60,000 acres at their peak, Leveque’s home, where she’s lived for 35 years, was destroyed. So while family members, friends and other acquaintances boarded shuttle buses to the airport Sunday morning, Leveque’s luggage was still in her hotel room, her bags still unpacked. For the time being, she’s stuck.

“I’m confused about what’s going to happen next,” Leveque, 49, told the Free Press. “It hurts to see family go back (while we stay here.)”

The Red Cross, which has facilitated the evacuation of both Little Grand Rapids and nearby Pauingassi First Nation, has been trying to help her, she said. For now, all she and her family members can do is wait.

Until they find new lodging in Little Grand Rapids, Leveque and nine family members, including several grandchildren, will be housed in the hotel. Although she’s frustrated, Leveque said they have enough space and no complaints about their accommodations thus far.

“As long as we have a place to stay, a bed to sleep on, and food to eat, it’ll be OK,” she said.

Michelle Palansky, the Red Cross’s regional spokeswoman, said she believes only three homes in Little Grand Rapids were damaged beyond livability. Residents of two of the homes will stay in a housing complex built for the community’s teachers during the summer, she said. While she didn’t have details about Leveque’s house, she said the organization will do all it can to help her family in the meantime as repatriation operations continue.

Most residents of Little Grand Rapids and Pauingassi were evacuated in late May, and have been temporarily housed in hotels around Winnipeg. For the last month, they’ve waited for word they could return. 

On Friday, after the Red Cross and other authorities confirmed it was safe to let residents return, evacuees were issued notices announcing their impending return. The notices were slipped under their hotel room doors to notify them of the time of their flights, which were scheduled for either Saturday or Sunday. For those leaving Saturday, the notice emphasized evacuees had to be at the Holiday Inn on Ellice Avenue to board buses to the airport by 9 a.m. 

“Do not miss your bus and departure time,” the notice read. “Later flights are not guaranteed, and you will be responsible for finding your own way home.”

While most evacuees got the memo, Sunshine Bushie, who had a room at the Hilton on Wellington Avenue, spent Friday night in her brother’s room at a nearby hotel. When she returned the next morning, she learned that she’d missed her flight. “Everybody was gone,” she said, including several family members and her two sons, who flew back with their father. Bushie doesn’t have a cellphone, she said, so she couldn’t be reached before the flight departed.

Her children are alright, and Bushie is upset she missed the flight. As of Sunday afternoon, she was still staying at the hotel with her brother, unsure of when or if a new flight might be offered. “I’m confused about what happens next,” she said.

Palansky said she couldn’t speak about Bushie’s case, however she said the Red Cross made every effort to explain details about the return to Little Grand Rapids to all evacuees.

“We had explained that people needed to leave on the particular flights they were slated for,” she said. “If they were not, they had to be responsible for getting themselves back.”

At the airport, Little Grand Rapids residents could hardly wait to board their planes. About 340 people were flown back Sunday — the same amount who’d made the trip Saturday. Flights were bound for Grand Rapids airport, and from there, residents were set to board a community boat. Some elderly or ill residents might take a float plane rather than a boat, Palansky said.

“Everything’s gone very smoothly,” said Cliff Keeper, Jr. “Red Cross did an awesome job.”

“I’m happy that we’re all going home today,” said Paul Duck, 51, who has lived in Little Grand Rapids for most of his life. “I’m not a city guy, and having a whole family come to Winnipeg can be very difficult,” he added. 

Dozens of families made their way to the airport throughout the weekend, with roughly 15 flights bound for Little Grand Rapids each day, although many were unsure what their community would look like once they return. 

Palansky said the medical centre is up and running, the water treatment facility is operational, and that the Northern Store is stocked. Security workers and labourers were in the community throughout the week restoring power and phone services. The Red Cross has also delivered about 800 fridges and freezers to replace those that were no longer sanitary after food had been rotting in them for weeks. The appliances cost roughly $1 million. 

Some residents who returned Saturday said the store wasn’t open when they returned, and Palansky wasn’t sure whether it would be on Sunday.

The same return process will begin Monday for 460 Pauingassi residents, Palansky said. 

For now, Bushie is still in Winnipeg. The price tag for a flight back is a bit steep for her, she said. “I still feel like I’m stuck,” she said. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to fly back today.”

 

bwaldman@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @benjwaldman