A couple of recent conversations with friends about the devastating wildfire season in Canada inspired me to find out what is happening in Canada as progress has been made on some wildfires and other wildfires are still burning. I knew from media outlets and from Wildfire Today's excellent coverage that the entire city of Yellowknife (see for example this August 17th article from NBS News), Northwest Territories in Canada was evacuated in mid-August 2023 (on or about August 17th and 18th), see this August 17th article from Kelly Andersson of Wildfire Today A shout out to Mike Archer of Wildfire News of the Day who covered the Canadian Wildfires and the Yellowknife evacuation in his newsletters.
I was wondering what happened in Yellowknife so I went to CBC News on Youtube where I looked through their videos until I found a September 6th 15 minute video report on Yellowknife residents returning home, evacuation in reverse. But first I went to the City of Yellowknife NWT to learn about returning home. The video shares most of this information in a little more detail than I will go into here, but I learned some basics of the timeline. Here is a screenshot I got from the Yellowknife Welcome Home Page dated September 2, 2023:
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| Obtained on September 18, 2023 from https://www.yellowknife.ca/en/living-here/the-road-to-re-entry.aspx#Road-to-Home-Yellowknifes-Planned-Re-entry-Information-September-2-2023 |
You will see that after it was determined that Yellowknife was safe from wildfire and they checked for damage and identified critical services that essential personnel for critical services were allowed to return on August 29th. On September 4th and 5th basic services began to put back in place. On September 6th, the general public, those not in need of critical services (watch the video) and see this September 4th article from NNSL media.
As I understand it took some time for the general public of Yellowknife to return as there is only one road in, people were encouraged to bring 3 days worth of food and shelters were set up along the way. Because it will take some time for critical workers and services to restored, it could be as long as a month (early October?) before Yellowknife residents needing critical services are allowed back.
Some basic services such as the library, transit services, some recreational facilities, solid waste pick-up and city hall were up and running on or about September 11th. See this September 7th media advisory from Yellowknife for more information (note I am not certain how long this link will remain active).
I am embedding the September 6th video from the CBC featuring Andrew Chang, allow just over 15 minutes to watch the entire video. You will get a feeling for what returning to Yellowknife entailed as well as a review of the August 17th and 18th evacuations.
Finally, I am not embedding this video, but here is another 15 minute from the CBC about the general public returning to Yellowknife.
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