Town of Drayton Valley evacuated because of wildfire

Several businesses, and the RCMP station are already gone.

Several other town in the area have now been ordered to evacuate. And 'in the area', I mean a half hour - 45 minute drive away.

They had coverage on the news this morning on the situation there. It looks awful and so many people being affected by it.

We might get rain on Sunday, until then everything is bone dry.

Out of control wildfires force 13,000 people to evacuate in Alberta

Since dinnertime, we've got 3 alerts by radio, and 2 by phone of evacuations.

The hamlet of Red Creek near High Level had to be evacuated by boat, and lost the water plant, police station, and only store. It's done.

Just got another phone alert.

Can't keep up.

https://www.alberta.ca/alberta-emergency-alert.aspx

Provincial vewi, West of Edmonton. Basically, all routes west are diverted.

AlbertaFiresMay5.png

Two more east of the city in the last couple hours.

AlbertaFiresMay5update.png

Part of County of Grande Prairie forced to evacuate because of a wildfire

Damn dude. Stay safe out there.

I'm good. No fires within 15km of me. But I have to admit, the emergency system going *wha* *wha* *wha* *wha* on the radio and my phone every half hour as the alerts call out evacuations is a bit nerve racking.

At least when we designed the alert system, we included the ability to focus alerts based on postal codes, so I only get actually local to me alerts on my phone. But the local county is larger than some European countries, so they aren't really close.

I feel bad for people in Red River Cree nation who have lost pretty much their whole town, or Drayton Valley that also lost 20 or so homes. They aren't large places, so they are fundamentally changed.

All day long, alerts on the radio, and phone. Some places are on either side of a highway closure. Just got one for High Level, that the fire had crossed the river.