Kamloops is considering setting up cots for wildfire evacuees again this year.
In 2017, the city used Sandman Centre for people fleeing fires. City manager David Trawin said something similar could happen again soon, saying more information should be known later this week.
“We do have the ability to do potentially do full evacuation centres, set up like in Sandman… We do have a lot of people in the community from existing evacuations now. So that is something we’re talking about. I don’t know whether it would be Sandman Centre, whether it will be McArthur Island, or whether it will be another civic facility,” Trawin told NL News.
“It’s something we’re exploring right now to see what the needs are, and what the abilities are to get that happening. Obviously with fires throughout the province, we would need resources from the province. And where’s the best spot to allocate those resources? So I’m hoping to have something on that by the end of the week.”
Emergency operations centre spokesperson with the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, Michelle Nordstrom, said the approach up to this point has been to have evacuees in commercial lodging instead of group lodging, in large part because of COVID-19.
“Since about July 1, we’ve understood there’s not any capacity for commercial lodging in Kamloops,” Nordstrom added. “So that’s any of our hotels and motels and places people can go. So we’ve had a few other reception centres that people have been set up in the Kelowna and Merritt areas, and those have gotten full for capacity as well.”
An example of how full locals accommodators are is people included in 110 new evacuations near the Sparks Lake fire on Tuesday being told to check in at the Prestige Harbourfront Resort in Salmon Arm, two hours away, if they need a place to stay.
“We are advising those residents to stay with friends and family, if they can, in which case also to register with emergency services, so that they can be eligible for any kind of compensation or emergency social services they’re going to need while they’re evacuated,” Nordstrom said.
Fire evacuees can register with ESS either in person at McArthur Island in Kamloops, or online or over the phone.
There are hundreds of properties on evacuation order in the southern Interior, in places in and around Lytton, northwest of Kamloops and north of Lillooet.
