Yellowknife outbreak complicates Fort Simpson flood evacuation plans

For months, Fort Simpson has been preparing for the possibility of flooding. If the community was forced to evacuate, the original plan was to set up community members in Yellowknife hotels.

Mayor Sean Whelly said the village wasnotifiedFriday that those plans have changed. Government officials told him community members would now be set up in Yellowknife's Fieldhouse instead. Elders whodo not require medical facilities would also be placed in the Fieldhouse, Whellytold CBC.

The N.W.T.'s department of Municipal and Community Affairs declined to confirm the Fieldhousearrangement.

"The [emergency management office] is currently in the process of re-evaluating evacuation accommodations. Several different options are possible depending on the needs at the time," the department stated in an emailed response.

If the Fieldhouse is the option, Whelly said it just won't work.

Yellowknife and surrounding communities are now grappling with an outbreak of COVID-19. Schools are closed to in-person learning, and non-essential travel between communities is discouraged.

"Fort Simpson is going to have to rearrange its emergency plan to try to do what it can to accommodate people who just will refuse to be subjected to that type of evacuation where they're making a choice between one danger zone and another danger zone," Whelly said.

"I'm getting a lot of feedback that absolutely no, that's just not going to fly. We're not going for that."

Outbreak blurs the picture

Yellowknife is in the midst of a COVID-19 cluster that appears to be growing. More than 1,000 people are in self-isolation following exposure to active cases. Chief public health officer Kami Kandola said Monday the cityis"on the brink of community spread."

Given these announcements, Whelly said he thinks the changes to evacuation plans"is a really poor choice."

"I'm hoping that the CPHO[chief public health officer]and emergency planners in Yellowknife and MACA[Municipal and Community Affairs]will make the right decision and go back to the original plan," Whelly told CBC.

He also said the village had attempted earlier to obtain funding to prepare and establish evacuationzones on high ground, wheretents and temporary accommodations could be set up.

"We were told not to worry about it," Whelly said, "that if people have to evacuate, we got a plan, they're going to Yellowknife, they're going to stay in a hotel. So I guess why would you buy tents, if that's what you're told? But now COVID[-19]changed all that."

Whelly is meeting with territorial emergency plannersthis morning to further discuss options.

But Whelly suggests that community members create a plan for their families if they believe they may be affectedby a potential flood.

That could meanstaying with relatives off the main island or going camping. The village has also established an areafor people to set up tents, if an evacuation is declared.

"We'll do what we can. I don't want to see people put in the danger zone," Whelly said.

"We just don't believe that the Fieldhouse is adequate given the current situation over there."