This off topic post is about some anxiety and fear that I’m trying to deal with and also about gratitude.

So, we’ve had a pretty dry Spring in Alberta, and the result has been a large number of grass fires in the northern parts of the province. The ground is tinder dry and strong winds have created wild fire conditions. In past week, small fires have grown into fast moving and very large fires. Over the last couple of days, it’s devolved into a really serious situation, with multiple communities further North being evacuated.

My husband I travelled from our home in Hinton, which is in the foothills of the Rockies, east to our daughter’s home in Leduc, a suburb of Edmonton. There were a couple of fires along our route that we had to detour around, but the detours were well organized and though it was a longer trip than usual we had sunshine and blue skies. We had been unsure about making the trip, but were reassured by the conditions we were experiencing.

After we got to my daughter’s, a series of emergency alerts blasted my phone with news of new fires and existing fires exploding in size and moving west along the route we’d just travelled and new mandatory evacuations. People who had evacuated from one community yesterday were now being evacuated further west, along with their hosts. The town next to me is just 45 miles away, and has just been evacuated to Hinton. It was perfectly fine when we went through earlier today.

Although we’re always aware of the possibility that fire could engulf our small town surrounded by forest, we have never had to face it this closely. People have sprung into action, lining up at gas stations, packing up necessities and sentimental things, ready to move out if need be.

And here I am, 300 kilometres away, unable to do a thing. I know that it may be fine, it probably will be. Maybe it will rain tonight and we can all return to normal. It’s not my house or our other car, or my furniture or anything like that. It can all be replaced. It’s the sentimental things. The baby photos, the letters my grandma wrote 60 years ago, my mom’s wedding rings. That stuff. I’ve tried hard not to focus too much on the possibility of losing it.

Here’s the gratitude part: My friend Pat texted me to ask if she and our other friend Gisele could go to my house and pack up some things that are important to us. I started to cry. There are so many awful things we read about in the news every day, so many examples of people being horrible that it’s easy to forget that there’s also so much good. The past week or so has shown me that in the way citizens have reached out to help people displaced by the fires. And on a personal level, I am so fortunate in my friendships.

Please cross your fingers, send good vibes or a shout out to the universe or whatever, or just wish us luck and hopes that the rain will fall on us soon.

I hope that all goes well for you and your community. It sounds lovely! And how wonderful that your friends were willing to help you.

Do check in when the danger passes.

My cousin in Edson has evacuated. Was just watching the report of all the folks camping on the Walmart in Hinton and in Jasper. Hope some of the showers in my forecast head north. Be safe everyone.

Are you all doing OK?

We got some rain in SE Idaho. I was hoping the rain would move up there to help.

I have been worried too. From the little I can see, they may be having power outages but no fires close. People are evacuating into that area. The frightening thing though is how fast things can change :(

> The frightening thing though is
> how fast things can change  :(


Thankfully, not here though!

An update about our situation here. We managed to get home on Sunday, though we had to go south and then west to the north border of Banff National Park and then travel through Jasper to get home. A trip about 4 hours longer than usual for us, but it was pretty and was outside of the fire zone.

Our town was jam packed with evacuees in cars, pickups and RVs - Ron's cousin among them I guess - and with semi trucks lining all the service roads waiting for the highway to open. It opened partially yesterday, with one detour, and today it looks like its completely open. Most of our guests have happily returned home.
The hot weather is supposed to return in a couple of days, but we have had some rain along the stretch of road that was closed. Not much but any bit helps. I think more is coming.

There are still a large number of fires burning, and still people on evacuation from various communities so we are not out of the woods yet. We are in an official state of emergency now, and reinforcement firefighters are coming into the province which will be an enormous help!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/2023 05:25PM by looking in.

Glad you're home again and safe.

I hope all was well with your cousin’s home when he got back, Ron.

Have not heard otherwise from him so hopefully no news is good news. My girlfriend in western New York state said they had smoke there today that originated in Saskatchewan and Alberta wildfires.