Evacuees from wildfires finding shelter in Kelowna
A pr etty good percentage of the town has pulled out.
Evacuees fleeing wildfires around the province are finding refuge at a Kelowna evacuation centre, where volunteers have registered more than 100 people this week.
Laurie Sparks, from Clinton, chose to leave her home and come to Kelowna because she is caring for three family members with medical problems.
“Clinton’s not under evacuation order, but there’s a fire extremely close to it . . . and there’s only one open road out of there right now, so people who have problems with breathing and any other medical issues are leaving,” she said. “A pretty good percentage of the town has pulled out.”
Before coming to Kelowna, Sparks went to the emergency reception centre in Kamloops. “It’s total chaos there,” she said. “I went to the emergency services centre twice in Kamloops to try and get help, and they’re doing their best, but it’s chaos. They’re overwhelmed.”
Sparks chose to come to Kelowna because she has relatives in town.
Her experience registering with the evacuation centre in Kelowna has been much better, she said.
“They had us organized and gave us all the help we needed in half an hour,” she said. “It was just amazing how fast they got everything in line.”
The majority of evacuees who have registered at the Kelowna centre are staying with friends and family, and the rest are staying in group lodging, said Tanya Patterson with the emergency operations centre.
“We are prepared right now to receive 500 evacuees, and if needed we can expand that,” said Patterson.
Many of the evacuees are people who live in cities affected by wildfires, but were in Kelowna at the time and cannot return home, she said.
“They do have reception centres and group lodging in other cities, but if people are stranded in this area, it’s beneficial for them.”
If a wildfire starts in the Kelowna area, local emergency services are prepared to help, said Patterson.
“In the emergency operations centre, we have half of us working on the flood response, and we’re ready to go if a wildfire situation happens in Kelowna,” she said. “If that happens, we’ve got a contingency plan in place.”
The evacuation reception centre, at the Salvation Army church, 1480 Sutherland Ave., is open between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.