Government ‘shift work’ needed to get Fort McMurray residents home: Jean
Wildrose Leader Brian Jean is calling on the government to put in some long days at the office to clear the way for the final Fort McMurray residents to start rebuilding their homes.
“We work shift work to produce oil, why can’t everyone else work shift work to get us back in our homes?” he said in a phone interview Tuesday from Fort McMurray.
Jean said the long wait is “revictimizing” people who were most affected by the wildfire that swept through the region in May.
“The Alberta Chief Medical Officer needs to give an all-clear before any reconstruction can begin in the three most burned-out neighbourhoods. That’s unheard of,” he said.
The medical officer’s “recommendations on re-entry were put in place to protect residents from potential harm,” and the provincial government is working with the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo to finalize a re-entry and mitigation plan, Carolyn Ziegler, a spokesperson for Alberta Health, said in an emailed statement.
Residents will be allowed to rebuild “as soon as it is safe to do so,” Ziegler said.
Jean said five of his family members lost their houses and his nephew’s experience with the rebuilding process was so cumbersome that it deterred others from doing it.
“There’s 10,000 people who don’t have a home right now. They’re in temporary housing waiting to rebuild on the place they want to live and feel is their home. Give us the all-clear. Give us certainty so we can go ahead,” Jean said. “Three months and they don’t even know if they are going to get a building permit or apply for a development permit. They’re not issuing them yet. Why not?”
Jean said he had just come from his own house, which burned down in the fire, and it was “very upsetting” that people can’t rebuild yet.
Genevieve Belleville is struck most about the many Fort McMurray residents who are having nightmares and trouble sleeping.
The psychology professor at Laval University in Quebec City is heading a mental-health study of people from the northern Alberta city who were forced to flee a voracious wildfire in May.
Two of her research assistants were returning Tuesday after spending three weeks in the community. They conducted clinical interviews with about 50 residents and another 300 people completed an online questionnaire.
Analysis is to begin soon on whether some are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, Belleville said. A preliminary look at the data shows many in the group aren’t sleeping well.
“They also have very painful memories,” said Belleville. “Some of them have moved, don’t want to go back to Fort McMurray because it’s too painful to see the aftermath of the fire.”
More than 80,000 people were forced to leave their homes when the wildfire roared through and destroyed 2,400 homes and buildings. The evacuation for some included a panicky, slow-moving drive out of the smoke-filled city as nearby trees went up in flames.
Symptoms of PTSD include intrusive memories, negative feelings and emotional reactions, such as trouble sleeping. Most signs are just normal reactions to an abnormal event, said Belleville.
“If the symptoms persist for more than one month, then we can talk about PTSD. Before that, it cannot be considered a disorder.”
PTSD is the brain’s way of being protective, she explained.
“When there’s something that scares us with very, very extreme intensity, the brain keeps a trace. The brain wants to remember that it’s scary, so we don’t get in that situation again.”
The study will also assess whether the residents have depression, anxiety or substance-abuse problems, she said.
Preliminary findings should be complete in the fall and are to be shared with the people involved.
While most PTSD studies have focused on soldiers returning from war, Belleville said when she heard about the Fort McMurray fire, she knew it was a great opportunity to examine the effects of another kind of traumatic event. She said she hopes the study will offer further knowledge of what helps and what hinders mental-health recovery.
She’s optimistic that, with more funding, her team will be able to keep in touch with residents and expand the study in the future.
More Fort McMurray residents have been getting counselling this year. Alberta Health Services says mental-health staff in the city have received 20,000 referrals since May 10. They typically receive 1,200 referrals each year.