Jasper Evacuation: A Harrowing White-Knuckle Drive

         Above is a photo of Di and John, in amazingly good spirits, considering the life-changing event that they have experienced.   As residents of Jasper Alberta, they along with 25,000 others had to make a sudden nighttime evacuation of the town, before the inferno caused by a rapidly advancing forest fire engulfed it.

            DI and John were at our house for lunch yesterday; their lives in flux, and uncertainty, recounting their experience of the evacuation.   Here is the way their story landed with me, and I apologize for any misinterpretations and mistakes.

    

        The evacuation order came at 10:00 at night, telling everyone they must take Highway 16 west to BC, and must be out of town by 3:00 AM.  This only gave them five hours to escape.   In the rush, Di’s bag with her important mementos was left behind, sitting beside the door.  It was decided that Di, who dreads driving at night, would nevertheless have to drive their car, taking Harry their dog.  John would drive Al and Joy’s car.  They were friends, both incapacitated with medical problems who couldn’t drive themselves.  Al had just gotten out of the hospital.

        The entire population of Jasper was thrown into chaos with bumper to bumper traffic.  After driving just a couple of blocks from their apartment, Di and John came to a standstill for half an hour, unable to join the slowly moving line of traffic.  John then decided to just walk over to Al and Joy’s place.   On her own, Di was soon able to enter the line of exiting cars and proceeded nervously, at the crawling speed, along with the others in the lineup.

        When John got over to Al and Joy’s place his problems began.  Both were already sitting in their car, but John discovered that the driver’s side door plus two of the others were locked, and Al and Joy couldn’t get to the driver’s door to unlock it, so John ended up going through the unlocked back door, climbing past one of his passengers, and squirming his way into the driver’s seat.  

         John also had to wait a long while, but finally was eventually able to join into the bumper to bumper parade out of town.  It was very dark by the time he got to the “Shale Hill” just west of Jasper.  Night driving in someone else’s car carrying passengers with medical problems can be stressful enough, but then things got worse when a downpour of rain began.

        John turned on the windshield wipers, which began sweeping across the windshield, but they didn’t clear the water from it.  He could hardly make out the taillights of the car in front of him.  The windshield wipers just didn’t do anything despite their movement.  His vision of the highway and traffic was almost totally obscured by the rain and darkness. 

        To order to stay on the highway, John began driving with the tires keeping on the textured grated-patterned pavement marking the edge of the road.  By feeling the textured pavement, he could tell he was on the highway.  The highway from Jasper to BC is full of twists, turns, and hills with steep drop-offs along the side.

        At one point, full of frustration, John pulled out of the line of traffic onto a pull-off to see what was wrong with the windshield wipers.  He discovered that the reason they weren’t cleaning the windshield was because the actual wipers were gone.  It seemed that one of Al’s friends had taken them off so he could buy new ones, but then the evacuation happened before he could do that.

        It was bumper to bumper, all along the 100 km (70 mile) route before you reach Highway 5 and can turn off to Valemount, BC.  There were no other settlements, roads, or highways connecting to Highway 16 along the stretch to Highway 5.  All of the Rest Areas and pull-offs were already packed with vehicles and their sleeping evacuees.  Di didn’t have enough gas to make it to McBride, so she and John had planned to meet in Valemount which was closer.      

        After more than triple the time it normally takes to make the trip to Valemount, Di finally arrive at a parking lot there, and then later, John, and his passengers also arrived, after his eventful drive.  Al and Joy were able to get a motel room, while John, Di, and Harry the dog, spent an uncomfortable night trying to sleep in the car.  Valemount was packed with evacuees from Jasper.  A campground with 45 spaces, had 600 cars parked for the night.

        News of what structures were left unburned in Jasper is still unavailable, so Di and John don’t yet know for sure, whether their home and possessions still exist.  They heard from one acquaintance who thought that their complex was still standing.   Hopefully, that is the case.   Undamaged or not, much of Jasper has been destroyed, and it will be weeks before people will be allowed to return.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Jasper Alberta On Fire

    We, and the rest of the residents of the Robson Valley are shocked and reeling upon hearing the news that the townsite of Jasper, Alberta is burning.   Although Jasper is a two hour drive away, it is often viewed as a neighboring town, in our sparsely settled area of the world.  Jasper is the only town in the the internationally-known Jasper National Park.  Surrounded by mountains, it attracts visitors with its scenery, hiking, rafting, and in the winter, skiing.  

    Residents, including several of our friends who live in Jasper, were told to immediately evacuate at 10:00 Sunday night and given 5 hours to get out of town because of two encroaching forest fires.  This resulted in a quick scramble, forcing people having to leave everything behind.  Although Jasper has three highways going into it, because of the location of the fires, only the west exit which went to BC could be travelled.  

    Our friends John, Di, and their dog ended up having to sleep in their car in Valemount, BC, whose population had more than doubled with all of the Jasper evacuees.  The next day they drove to McBride to stay with friends.  I don’t know what happened to our other Jasper friends; Janet our Vet, and Matt, whose photography store printed my art cards and prints.  

    At this point, the news out of Jasper is very grim.  We have only seen one photo; a motel engulfed in flames, but reports of the historical Jasper Park Lodge, indicate that fire has reached its grounds.  News reports make it sound as though the whole town is in flames.  What an incredible loss that would be for for those residents, those businesses, and our part of the world.

    The extreme record breaking heat that resulted in the fires has now change to cool and wet weather.  It is now raining in Jasper, however, sadly, it has arrived to late for Jasper and our friends.

You can see my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Kona, The Pea Picking Dog

    Kona joined me out in the garden the other day, when I went to pick strawberries.  Kona was not interested in strawberries, instead she walked over to the rows of peas, tore down a pea plant, carried it over the the grass at he edge of the garden, and then began eating the pea pods on the plant.  While we have had other dogs that liked to eat peas, we’ve never had a dog like Kona, who really relishes plants often over meat.  She is forever pulling up and eating grass, and chewing on sticks.  

    She can be asleep in another room, but if we begin to grate a carrot in the kitchen, like magic Kona appears, wanting a chunk.  There has been many a time, when she refuses to eat her canned dog food, then happily when we go outside, she starts chewing on a stick or grass instead.   She seems to want to be a vegetarian.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

An Unsettled Night

    Last night was not very restful for me.  Just before I went to bed we got a call from friends who live in Jasper National Park.  They told us that the whole town had just been told they must evacuate within five hours because of a forest fire.   They were, of course, in a panic, and didn’t know what to do.  We told them they could stay with us, but they were also taking on the responsibility of helping an incapacitated  couple evacuate.  We didn’t hear any thing further.

    We then got Alberta’s loud and jarring, evacuation alert over our phone because we live close to the Alberta border.  In a confused sort of state I went to bed, only to be awakened a couple of hours later by a thunderstorm with close lightning.  The photo above shows the blue circle where our house is, and the red dots are lightning strikes.  Luckily the storm was giving us some rain at the same time.  

    Unsettled, I went back to sleep again, but at 2:30, my cell phone erupted with a loud repeat of Alberta’s evacuation alert for Jasper, so I was awaken again.  By that time our lightning storm was over, as was the rain.  After another hour, I finally fell back to sleep.

    Fortunately, the storm had ushered in a cool and damp weather system, which is very welcome.  Yesterday, we were under three weather alerts:  High temperatures (it was 99°F on Sunday),  a severe Thunderstorm Warning, and a very poor air quality warning due to all of the forest fire smoke. 

    We still have the smoke today (the nearby forest fire that was 250 ha (620 acres) yesterday, has now grown to 500 ha. (1,240 acres), but the damp, cool weather in the forecast for the nest few days is really welcome news.

    The photo below shows the dense smoke.  Can you see the bridge?

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Fires, Smoke, and Anxiety

    Conditions are hellish in the Robson Valley.  The Beaver Creek Fire that was 50 ha. (120 acres) in size yesterday, is now listed as being 250 ha. (620 acres) in size.  A thick blanket of smoke fills our Valley.  We can no longer see the Mountains, painting everything in an eerie hue.  The smell of smoke permeates every breath we take, and my eyes are weepy and tired, after just being up for an hour.  Our temperature yesterday was a record breaking 37°C (99°F).  These are not good times.

    Beside the Beaver Creek Fire, the radio reported that there is another fire in the Robson Valley on the Tete Jaune/Croydon Road.  That would be further away from McBride, east of Dunster.  There is a 60% chance of thunderstorms this morning, and I hope we get rain, and not lightning,  I have my fingers crossed.   There is cooler and and wetter weather beginning Wednesday, so I hope things don’t bet worse until we get there.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Local Forest Fire; What Our Summers Have Become

    After our long winters, we used to look forward to summer, but more and more, I am coming to dread it.  

    Lately our summers have meant thick smoke from far away forest fires blanketing our valley, obscuring the mountains and the sun.  The smoke would remain for weeks.  Last year we had our first nearby forest fire, which caused us to evacuate our house.  Now this year, after a relatively cool and showery spring, a very hot and dry period arrived, and we are back in the Extreme Fire Hazard Category.

    We had a lightning storm in the wee hours of Friday morning, then yesterday, hazy smoke began filling the sky from far away fire and the day was filled with the sound of helicopters.  On the Forest Service website, I saw that there was a 50 ha. (120 acre) fire, caused by a lightning strike that was just eight miles east of McBride.  On our trip to visit friends last night, we could see the fire and the helicopter flying back and forth from the Fraser River to the fire, carrying water to dump. 

    After getting back home, I received a text message from the Regional District declaring an Evacuation Alert for the area east of McBride.  Luckily, we are not in that area, but it is only three miles away from our house.  Hopefully we will not be getting any strong winds today that will cause the fire it to spread.

    It is scary to see how the Earth’s climate has changed and the disasters that change has wrought.  It is sobering knowing that our climate will just be getting worse in the future.  Sorry for the pessimism, but it is time to accept reality.

View my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Goodwill: Changing Living Dynamics

            This blog continues with my experiences starting in 1970, when I had to do two years of Alternative Service as a Conscientious Objector, working at the Indianapolis Goodwill.  I have mentioned how interesting it was working at the Goodwill, because you never knew what kind of things would be donated.  One day a whole collection of old classical style theatrical costumes came in.  I couldn’t help but buy a couple of them.  The photo shows me modeling one of them.

Jim had mentioned to me that the Carriage House had been the headquarters of the Socialist Worker’s Party in Indianapolis.  I thought that that was an an interesting coincidence, since it was a Socialist Worker’s Party episode that caused me some friction during my draft physical. 

    During my university days, I had once attended a speech given by the US Vice Presidential Candidate of the Socialist Workers Party and talked to him a bit afterwards.  Months later during my draft physical, we were given and had to read, a long list of “Communist” organizations and check any that we had had any association with.  The Socialist Workers Party, was one of those on the list, and so since I had attended the speech, I checked it.

    That resulted in an interview with an Army Officer, who wanted to know the details, and  I told him I just went to a speech.  The officer wanted me to stay overnight to talk to his superior, at which point I started to worry that the Socialist Worker thing might jeopardize the application I had sent to join the Peace Corp. 

     I pleaded with the military guy, telling him that after all, the man was on the ballot for the Federal election, and I figured it was my civil duty to hear what he had to say.  (This was pretty much BS, since I was not yet old enough to vote).  However, the officer did finally allow me to fill out a second “Communist Organizations” form and this time, not check the Socialist Worker box, and all was forgotten.

    Years later, back at the Indianapolis Carriage House where I lived, and had just heard Jim telling me that the place used to be the headquarters of the Socialist Workers Party, I thought that was an interesting fact and  I didn’t spend any more time thinking about it.  Then one day, when I returned from work I discovered a bound bundle of newspapers sitting outside our door.

When I picked them up I saw that they were Socialist Worker’s Party newspapers.  I took them in, opened the bundle, and began to read through them.  When I got the last page I found a bordered section that listed all the headquarters of the party, and to my great shock and surprise, discovered that “The Carriage House” at our address, was still listed as the Socialist Workers Indianapolis headquarters.  I figured that if I didn’t have an FBI file before, surely I must have one since moving to the Carriage House.

Bill, one of my good friends and the lead guitarist in the band I was in back in Evansville, followed in my footsteps, first in becoming a Conscientious Objector, then getting assigned to do his Alternative Service in the Indianapolis Goodwill, and finally ending up working in the Pricing Department with me.  He needed a place to live, so Jim and myself, let Bill move in with us at the Carriage House.  

Later, Jim hooked up with a girl named Carol, and invited her to also move in with us.  The Carriage House was beginning to look and feel a bit like a commune.  The addition of Carol living in our house really started to change the easy-going relationships we had had.  Carol was a stickler for cleanliness and order, and she began nagging at Bill and I over our indiscretions.  Bill and I were getting tired of living in the ghetto anyway, and since the arrival of Carol, our house dynamics had changed to the point where we began looking for somewhere else for us to live.

Luckily Bill and I found a nice small cottage beside the White River, just north of the newly completed Interstate Loop circling Indianapolis.  While there were other houses around us, it felt like we were living in the country, with the White River flowing slowly through our back yard. 

Homelife was again easy going for Bill and I.  Bill bought himself an old player piano that had come into Goodwill.  While I don’t remember all the details of getting it to our new house, I do remember it was a terrible struggle for the two of us to get the thing up the steps and through the door of our cottage’s enclosed porch.  Regular pianos are heavy enough, but player pianos were a lot heavier, making them a lot more difficult to move.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca