An Alberta city in the midst of its most horrific tragedy has a northern Manitoban connection.
Fires raging through Fort McMurray have forced the city to evacuate its 82,000+ citizens to safety, with the Edmonton Journal reporting this morning that officials have accounted for 53,000 finding shelter in nearby communities, with zero fatalities reported as of yet.
Brad Karp, former news and sports reporter for CHTM and our sister station in The Pas, 102.9 CJAR, now works for CJOK in Fort McMurray and has been safely evacuated.
He spoke to CJAR’s Mark Andrews this morning to give his firsthand account of the devastation in the area, assuring first and foremost that he was safe.
“I’m just outside of Edmonton getting ready to pull into the hotel for the night, or I guess morning at this point. I’ve been on the road since the evacuation order came in at about 5:30 pm yesterday, so it’s been a long grind.”
Karp recalled the harrowing journey trying to leave the city, likening the situation to something out of a movie.
“I had to drive through fire on both sides of the highway. Fort McMurray’s downtown is in a valley right next to a river in a low-lying area; one side with the hill on the right is engulfed in flames, the other side, basically a couple streets down from the radio station, has fire on the grass. So we were right in the thick of it. And I’m not gonna lie, there was a two hour period where we were sitting in traffic just outside of the RCMP detachment, really not moving, and you’re sitting there and you see the fire moving closer and closer and you’re not getting any further away, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to call you this morning.”
And even once out of the city, Karp says the danger wasn’t over.
“People were leaving their cars and abandoning them on the side of the road, there were some people getting in accidents, and situations like that. And you don’t really think of either; Fort McMurray is similar to The Pas and Thompson in the fact that you’re an isolated northern community. Fort McMurray is about 45 minutes away from the nearest gas station, but in a situation like this, the gas dries up pretty quickly. So people would be running out of gas and just left their cars and hop in with other people who were driving by.”
Karp will be set up in a hotel for the night, but after that is a mystery.
“I’m with a few of my coworkers and we’re holed up in Edmonton for now, we all want to get back to work and keep people updated on our social media channels the best we can, since we can’t access the radio station. Power lines and internet lines have been burnt down, but we still have a strong following on social media, so we want to see if we can set something up with our sister stations in Edmonton and go live there to try broadcasting to Fort McMurray that way. We’re looking at a few different options, but we don’t want to sit on the sidelines.”
The only things Karp managed to pack with him before he evacuated were clothes, his laptop, cell phone, IDs and bank cards, and a few articles of clothing.
Karp wrapped up by thanking those offering their support in this truly difficult time.
“The outpouring of support is greatly appreciated. I’m not gonna paint a rosy picture; it doesn’t look good. In terms of surface area, half the city is gone. Conditions are gonna be bad today, 30 degrees, sunny, high winds up to 50 km/h, and humidity isn’t gonna be playing a positive role either. There may not be a whole lot much of Fort McMurray left by the end of the day.”
Anyone wishing to donate to relief efforts through the Canadian Red Cross can visit RedCross.ca or text REDCROSS to 30333.
Photo Credit to CBC.ca
