LONGING FOR HOME OUTWEIGHS INSURANCE WORRIES
Rose Gray answers the phone in her Edmonton hotel room, hopeful that it’s the insurance adjuster. It’s not.
Going three weeks — and counting — without hearing back from the insurance company is high on the list of her worries, but there are plenty of others.
Gray, a heavy equipment operator for oilsands mining company Syncrude, plans to drive back up to Fort McMurray on June 3, the designated day for residents evacuated from the Thickwood neighbourhood to return, with her son Dontue and her dog Donnette, a Yorkie-Maltese-Chihuahua mix.
But stuck for now in her hotel room, there’s too much spare time to think about the anxieties swirling around her homecoming, like insurance coverage and adjusters who don’t return calls. And refrigerators full of rotting food after sitting for weeks without electricity.
“I’ve been lying here worrying so much,” Gray said. “I was watching the news yesterday evening. I’ve been hearing that our refrigerators — we’re not supposed to open them. We’re just supposed to tape them and put them at the curb.
“I just went and bought stuff a couple of days before. My refrigerator is full and I have two refrigerators in my home and I don’t even know how I’m going to get those out to the curb without being able to open them to take some of the stuff out.”
Fretting about her livelihood was eased during a recent Syncrude town hall meeting in Edmonton, when company CEO Mark Ward assured employees there will be no layoffs and no disruption in pay despite a temporary shutdown of operations forced by encroaching wildfire.
What the air quality will be like in Fort McMurray also weighs on her mind because both she and her son sometimes use inhalers to help them breathe.
But all those worries still take a back seat to longing for home, Gray says. Her room at the Yellowhead Inn, provided at a discount, includes a kitchenette to prepare meals instead of eating fast food, but she’ll be driving up as soon as she’s allowed.
“I can’t wait to go home. I’m homesick. I’m so homesick.”
She believes her home still stands, but doesn’t know its exact condition.
“I’m hoping and praying that it’s not as bad as it looks on the news.”
More certain, is her desire to stay in Fort McMurray once she’s back and help the city get back on its feet. “Fort McMurray is my home for a long time. I’m in there for the long term and I’m there to help rebuild my town to whatever is needed to get us back up and going. We’re going to have a lot of stumbling blocks, but I think we’ll get over it.”
Fort McMurray is also where the oilsands industry is based and moving is out of the question. “I have a really good job. I love what I do.”
There’s been no word from her employer on when she will be called back to work at the Aurora mine site.
“I have so much nothing to do. I watch the news and my son goes to the gym because he has to stay active and I actually went to The Brick yesterday just looking at refrigerators, just to try to keep myself up.”