Northlands reception centre for Fort McMurray evacuees closes
Three-and-a-half weeks after wildfire forced more than 90,000 from their homes in Fort McMurray and surrounding communities, the demand for emergency services is beginning to ease.
On Friday, the City of Edmonton closed the reception centre at Northlands that offered evacuees a place to sleep and get a meal.
All evacuees staying at the centre have found medium-term housing, the city said in a news release.
Edmonton fire chief Ken Block, who speaks for the centre, praised everyone involved.
"I can't say enough," he said. "The Red Cross, what a great organization they are. The province stepped up. The city was involved. All in all I think it's a pretty positive story on a dark situation."
The city estimates nearly 25,000 people overall visited the reception centre, with about 2,000 people staying overnight at the height of its operations.
The centre opened at midnight on May 4 as thousands of evacuees from Fort McMurray and surrounding communities streamed into Edmonton.
The centre provided emergency accommodations, food, clothing, counselling and served as a community hub and resource centre for evacuees.
Also on Friday, the Kingsway emergency relief services centre began scaling back its hours.
Since opening on May 9, the centre estimates more than 60,000 evacuees dropped in to pick up essential items, including clothing, pet food and toilet paper.
"It's three changes of clothes — six times three is 18 — that's 180,000 pairs of brand new clothing," said Edmonton Emergency Relief Services Society spokesperson Nicole Geoffroy. "That's 120,000 pairs of brand new shoes, so as you can see, all the brand new donations coming in have been utilized."
The centre was open seven days a week. But with demand slowing, the centre is cutting back hours to 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday to Saturday.
The good news is that evacuees who have already been to the centre can now return for more supplies.
Geoffroy said the priority is still to help families who haven't been to the center yet. But as of Friday, evacuees are allowed to make return visits.
The lineup at 10 a.m. Friday was 200 people deep, proof that the need for essential items still exists.
Food is also still needed.
The Edmonton Food Bank said Friday that food stores, especially baby formula, are depleted. Edmontonians are asked to drop off donations to the food bank warehouse at 11508-120th St.
