Fort McMurray Alberta

lukin2006

Entire town evacuated from wildfires ...

I know there are a few posters from Alberta on here ... Stay safe if your in the area.

Just google Fort Mac ... It's bad!

Thirty Bills Unpaid

Really bad.

Hell on earth.

lukin2006

For sure ... All the pictures and video from Fort Mac ... WOW

hedonist

Damn.

We know all too well about that out here.

I hope all in harm's way - whether or not members here - keep safe...themselves, their pets, and their homes.

oftenreading

Luckily, it still seems that there are no fatalities, but the devastation is incredible. There may be nothing for the evacuees to go back to. What a horrible situation for those in the area.

1ThoughtKnown

I lived in Fort McMurray for eleven years.. I am partly in shock and often moved to tears as I watch and hear the news.

Tears of equal parts sadness and pride. Sad for my friends up there and proud of all Albertans and the rest of Canada for stepping up to help these people. No anti-oilsands shrill, just people wanting and willing to help people.

My ex-wife and her children are safe, it has been an ordeal. When you talk to people who are involved it makes your stomach knot up. I can hardly eat or work, can you imagine being one of the evacuees? All of my friends and ex-coworkers are in a safe place but their world is turned upside down.

Please, please, please... donate to the Red Cross (or another organization who will help these evacuees).
Insurance will pay for the rebuild, these organizations will help these folks in the meantime.

I know PJ fans are some of the most caring and empathetic people in the world and will step up to the plate. This is an unmitigated disaster...

Cheers

lukin2006

1ThoughtKnown said:

I lived in Fort McMurray for eleven years.. I am partly in shock and often moved to tears as I watch and hear the news.

Tears of equal parts sadness and pride. Sad for my friends up there and proud of all Albertans and the rest of Canada for stepping up to help these people. No anti-oilsands shrill, just people wanting and willing to help people.

My ex-wife and her children are safe, it has been an ordeal. When you talk to people who are involved it makes your stomach knot up. I can hardly eat or work, can you imagine being one of the evacuees? All of my friends and ex-coworkers are in a safe place but their world is turned upside down.

Please, please, please... donate to the Red Cross (or another organization who will help these evacuees).
Insurance will pay for the rebuild, these organizations will help these folks in the meantime.

I know PJ fans are some of the most caring and empathetic people in the world and will step up to the plate. This is an unmitigated disaster...

Cheers

Glad to hear your doing well and your friends and family are doing well...tough times ahead for sure, but as I read on Twitter, and excuse me for not remembering who the quote was from, but here it is "we built Fort Mac once, we will rebuild those parts that need rebuilding"... Good luck and best wishes to all Albertans.

brianlux

1ThoughtKnown said:

I lived in Fort McMurray for eleven years.. I am partly in shock and often moved to tears as I watch and hear the news.

Tears of equal parts sadness and pride. Sad for my friends up there and proud of all Albertans and the rest of Canada for stepping up to help these people. No anti-oilsands shrill, just people wanting and willing to help people.

My ex-wife and her children are safe, it has been an ordeal. When you talk to people who are involved it makes your stomach knot up. I can hardly eat or work, can you imagine being one of the evacuees? All of my friends and ex-coworkers are in a safe place but their world is turned upside down.

Please, please, please... donate to the Red Cross (or another organization who will help these evacuees).
Insurance will pay for the rebuild, these organizations will help these folks in the meantime.

I know PJ fans are some of the most caring and empathetic people in the world and will step up to the plate. This is an unmitigated disaster...

Cheers

Good thoughts going out for our Canadian neighbors.

I just saw reports that this thing has gone to 210,000 acres. That's insane. We were horrified by the nearby King fire here last year at 97,717 acres and that's not even half the size of the Fort McMurray blaze. And it's so early in the fire season-- hard to imagine.

Be safe northern neighbors.

PJ_Soul

It's terrible. 80,000 people evacuated in a tiny period of time. All the footage of whole neighborhoods literally being forced to drive for their lives only feet from a raging wildfire - i am totally amazed and glad that no one appears to have been killed. Watching the videos, i thought they were going to burn to death in their cars! The amount of damage and the destruction is hard to fathom. And now 80,000 people are suddenly homeless because the whole city is unihabitable for for at least days. Not mention the thousands who lost homes. And then all the lost jobs... pets... What a nightmare.

I mean, holy shit, these videos! And i've seen dozens of different scenes like this and worse, it's so scary!

https://youtu.be/aC2iPvXAggM

https://youtu.be/AOC5YGyoGDw

brianlux

^^^ Unfreaking believable. It blows my mind that all those people got out Ok. I've driven near forest fires twice and its scary as hell but those were no where near this bad. Those people had to have been massively freaked out. Amazing that they seemed to keep cool and be orderly.

Sadly, I heard there there has been one death from a car crash while fleeing the fire but it could easily have been more.

And those guys out there directing traffic out there are amazing.

1ThoughtKnown

^^^

The heroic efforts of the first responders... it just cannot be put into words.

That they have saved all the city's critical infrastructure... just remarkable. Not out of the woods yet, it is another tough day with low humidity, high temps and wind.
Mother nature needs to give them a break, they need rain.

My friend found out today her house has been turned to ash. Sent me a picture. She is devastated.
Reality is starting to set in for these folks...

Kudos to Notley (our premier) for stepping up to the plate. I am impressed so far with her leadership in a very tough situation.

mickeyrat

Any word about help from the U.S.? Thinking fire fighters and aircraft to to help quell this beast?

This isnt intended to be a slag on that industry but a real concern, just how ,if at all, this fire encroaches on the fields?

lukin2006

Fort McMurray fire now too large, too fierce to stop without rain

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/fort-mcmurray-fire-now-too-large-too-fierce-to-stop-without-rain

PJ_Soul

lukin2006 said:

Fort McMurray fire now too large, too fierce to stop without rain

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/fort-mcmurray-fire-now-too-large-too-fierce-to-stop-without-rain

And it doesn't sound like there is going to be any.

I wonder how this is effecting operations at the Tar Sands? Seems like this must have shut them down completely.

brianlux

This fire has come SO early in the fire year. I read that it is very dry in Alberta this year and more fires are likely to occur this summer (such a familiar situation as we had her in California last year). Is this kind of drought normal from time to time up north? Is this unprecedented or a normal, recurring situation?

PJ_Soul

brianlux said:

This fire has come SO early in the fire year. I read that it is very dry in Alberta this year and more fires are likely to occur this summer (such a familiar situation as we had her in California last year). Is this kind of drought normal from time to time up north? Is this unprecedented or a normal, recurring situation?

No, it's not normal at all. There are many more fires in AB right now, and many in BC too. BC's firefighting resources are stretched so thin that the province can't even send help to AB, although a new huge fire that's been raging has just crossed the BC/AB border, and BC's fighters are following it in (which isn't normal). It's a really bad scene, and unprecedented, really. Of course there are always hundreds and hundreds of fires each summer in these provinces, so in that sense it's normal, but this is just so early in the year for the fire season to have started in earnest, and they seem more out of control.

Check out the size of the McMurray fire compared to other cities. It's insane. And it has grown since this was posted. Bigger than all of Brooklyn, Queens, and half of Manhatten combined!!
https://m.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/4i1vvv/the_fort_mcmurray_fire_is_85000_hectares_in_size/

Free

So sad. I have a cousin who lived there for 30 years and moved to Calgary 7 months ago. It's devastating.

brianlux

I was talking with some guys earlier today and we all agreed that none of us had heard anything about U.S. planes being sent to help dump water and fire retardant on the fire. Anybody know why that is or have we and I just haven't heard about it?

mickeyrat

brianlux said:

I was talking with some guys earlier today and we all agreed that none of us had heard anything about U.S. planes being sent to help dump water and fire retardant on the fire. Anybody know why that is or have we and I just haven't heard about it?

It takes a request to start and appoval for US aircraft to operate there. Other thing , we may not really be able to. Our own season is underway , we may not be able to spare any crews.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/13/science/wildfires-season-global-warming.html?_r=0

hedonist

You'd think the approval would go through quickly under such devastating circumstances. Maybe with the proviso that if they're needed back here, they return?

Oh please, let it rain over there today...

lukin2006

brianlux said:

I was talking with some guys earlier today and we all agreed that none of us had heard anything about U.S. planes being sent to help dump water and fire retardant on the fire. Anybody know why that is or have we and I just haven't heard about it?

Maybe the US help is not needed ... I for one hope we ( Canada ) deal with this tragedy ourselves.