In a not-surprising show of solidarity by people in the Kamloops area, donations have poured in over recent days for wildfire evacuees.
Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc has welcomed evacuees to camp at The Arbour for now, and has also taken donations of essential items. In an update today, the band says it is “bursting at the seams” with donations and is asking anyone who needs any of those items to go to Moccassin Square Gardens.
Tourism Kamloops had said yesterday it was taking donations at The Concession at Riverside Park. Staff had planned to take donations for two days, but within hours of opening up Saturday it said it had filled its entire trailer.
The Thompson-Nicola Regional District says the Kamloops emergency social services is not able to take donations at this moment because so many have come in. “Your generosity has been greatly appreciated, but at this time there isn’t proper storage facilities to accommodate the supply,” the regional district says.
Chief of the Clinton-Whispering Pines Indian Band, Mike Lebourdais, went to The Arbour yesterday where he says he helped out a longtime friend from Lytton who lost everything last week.
“If my family helps one family and another family helps another family we can get through this.”
A GoFundMe started for Lytton wildfire victims had also raised just under $298,000 at time of posting.
Meanwhile, as thousands of people are evacuated from the southern Interior, the province is urging evacuees to register with emergency social services. Emergency Management BC says even people who don’t need housing should register, so officials know they’re safe.
EMBC executive director of regional operations, Pader Brach, says part of the challenge is finding people who fled as fast they could from Lytton in particular, when the Lytton Creek wildfire tore through the town on Wednesday night. Two people died from that fire and more people are unaccounted for.
“Right now, one of the biggest challenges, due to the rapid movement of people out of that community, is to determine exactly where they are,” Brach says.
“Evacuees, as mentioned previously, went a lot of different places when they had left very promptly. And so those places included Lillooet, Ashcroft, Spences Bridge and even 100 Mile. EMBC did set up reception centres and engage with local communities throughout B.C., to try and manage the various places they went to.”
In total, the province has almost a dozen evacuee reception centres set up right now, for people fleeing wildfires in the southern Interior. Those are in Kamloops, Chilliwack, Kelowna, Merritt, 100 Mile House, Agassiz, Fort St. John, Shxwhay Village (near Chilliwack), Kelowna, Pemberton and Williams Lake.
Attention: ALL EVACUEES — @Tkemlups Moccassin Square Garden is bursting at the seams with donated items. If you are affected by the wildfires, please come get what whatever you need. (photo credit: Sam Alec) #BCWildfires #LyttonFire #Skeetchestn pic.twitter.com/CvxwqvVH9s
— Tk’emlúpsTeSecwépemc (@Tkemlups) July 4, 2021
Congratulations #Kamloops! You filled the trailer in a matter of hours and we can no longer fit anymore in. @TourismKamloops https://t.co/ZAUn3siEMq
— Curt Appleby (@CApps32) July 4, 2021
