Yellowknife residents begin to return home after wildfires forced evacuation

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Patty Olexin-Lang and around 30 other volunteers gathered outside Yellowknife Airport for a safety briefing Wednesday morning, before the first flight of displaced residents returned to the Northwest Territories after roughly three weeks away.

She was part of a volunteer taxi brigade organized by the City of Yellowknife to ferry people from the airport to their homes and vehicles as NWT’s capital repopulated. The drivers wore reflective safety vests and their vehicles sported handwritten placards identifying them as volunteer shuttles.

Residents who evacuated south in vehicles were allowed to re-enter the Yellowknife area by highway around 11 a.m. local time.

Officials warn Yellowknife’s reopening, which started earlier this week for essential workers and broadened to the general population Wednesday, will be challenging as the resumption of services lag the rush of returning residents. Health care services, for example, range from non-existent to understaffed.

While Yellowknife’s 22,000 residents are making their way home, thousands more NWT citizens remain displaced as fires continue to threaten other communities, including Hay River, the territory’s second-largest centre.

Thousands of people fled Yellowknife last month by air. Because so few people stayed in the city after the Aug. 16 evacuation order, the influx of returning flights would leave passengers stranded at the airport if not for volunteers such as Ms. Olexin-Lang.

“There’s a whole slew of people who have stepped up to the plate,” said Ms. Olexin-Lang, a hospital foundation executive who stayed in Yellowknife throughout the evacuation to volunteer. Returnees, eager to get home, are not hesitant to get into strangers’ vehicles, she said between airport runs.

“They are just happy that somebody is there to take them home.”

Wildfires forced nearly two-thirds of NWT’s population to evacuate in August, with most ending up in Alberta. Crews constructed firebreaks to protect Yellowknife and surrounding neighbourhoods and shielded the city from damage, which will make the return less complex. But on the south shore of Great Slave Lake, firefighters are still trying to defend Hay River and its nearby communities.

Flames were about 500 metres west of Hay River’s hospital and industrial area on Wednesday.

“This risk remains significant despite short-term help from rain,” Mike Westwick, a NWT information officer, said in an update. NWT asked evacuees from the south side of Great Slave Lake to remain where they are rather than go to Yellowknife, because its services are under pressure as residents return.

Officials ordered Hay River residents out of their homes on Aug. 13. Residents of K’atl’odeeche First Nation and Enterprise were also instructed to flee. Fire remains about seven kilometres away from residences on the K’atl’odeeche reserve, although much of Enterprise, a town of about 120 people, burned down.

Yellowknife Mayor Rebecca Alty, in a video posted on social media, asked returning residents to temper expectations upon arrival.

“Services will also slowly start to get back up and running,” she said. “It is pretty basic, basic services right now. Stuff like water, sewer, garbage. Just basic health care things.”

The Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority on Tuesday said it expected the Stanton Territorial Hospital’s emergency department to be operating at 80-per-cent capacity by Wednesday. The hospital’s intensive care unit will not be open, it said.

Yellowknife resident Philip Boulton, 51, said he’s waiting until Thursday to begin his trek up north, hoping to avoid the “mad rush” of people he expected to return home on Wednesday. He said the plan is to take his time driving about 1,450 kilometres from Edmonton back to the city – even trying to enjoy the drive “as much as possible,” compared to the intense trek out three weeks ago.

Mr. Boulton said it might be a slow roll back along some parts of the road, with visible fire damage still in the side view, but he’s just happy to head home. He volunteered to pick up stranded residents in High Level on his way back.

And while he doesn’t expect everything to be operating as normal in Yellowknife, he said it will only be a matter of time. “I am not worried in the least,” he said.

Back in Yellowknife, Ms. Olexin-Lang expected demand for volunteer taxi drivers to ease as more residents return and can pick up friends and family themselves. Residents have tried to pay her, but she brushed away the offers.

“We’re a vibrant city” she said, choking back sobs. “It was just nice to see how grateful everyone is that we’re there.”