Military planes help thousands of First Nation evacuees

WINNIPEG — Many of the 3,700 people fleeing northern Manitoba forest fires were still waiting to fly south on Thursday, more than 24 hours after they left their homes on a journey made complicated by a lack of transportation.

“They’re tired. They’re frustrated. There’s anger,” Chief Alex McDougall of Wasagamack First Nation said as he waited along with hundreds of others to board one of two military transport planes bound for Winnipeg, more than 500 km to the south.

“Some of us have been sleeping in terminals. Some of us have been sleeping in gymnasiums. There is some food being provided by the local (grocery) stores.”

All 2,000 residents of Was a ga mack had to leave Tuesday as a large forest fire came within 800 metres of the community. Because there is no airstrip, people took turns piling into boats in small groups for a 20-minute journey across a section of Island Lake to St. Theresa Point.

Smoke from the blaze also forced out people with health problems from the St. Theresa Point and Garden Hill reserves.

Small charter planes, that can carry between nine and 45 people, began ferrying people south to Brandon and Winnipeg on Wednesday, but a backlog persisted.

Thursday morning, two Hercules military transport planes, each capable of carrying 100 people, joined the effort.

But the large aircraft could only use the airstrip at Garden Hill, McDougall said, so he and others had to take a two-hour trip by barge from St. Theresa Point to Garden Hill.

In Winnipeg, the Canadian Red Cross was readying to welcome the evacuees by turning a 4,300-sq. metre hall at the city’s convention centre into an emergency shelter. Volunteers, including members of the Bear Clan Patrol — a nonprofit that keeps an eye on innercity streets — were busy setting up more than 1,000 cots, dozens of eating tables and more.

“We’re going to have an area where people can get personal services like hygiene products, hygiene kits, health needs, that sort of thing,” said Shawn Feely, the Canadian Red Cross’s regional vice-president.

The Manitoba government was to update the status of the forest fire Thursday afternoon. McDougall said from his vantage point in Garden Hill, the smoke seemed to be blowing away.