THUNDER BAY — After several delays, evacuees from Kashechwan First Nation landed at the Thunder Bay airport Friday afternoon.
Fire Chief Dave Paxton said community members will be taken from the plane onto a chartered bus and driven to their lodging.
“We have a couple of hotels that we deal with in the city that can provide both the food and lodging and also provide opportunities for the family networks to stay together with multiple beds and adjoining rooms. We're looking for all those amenities to keep larger family groups together,” said Paxton.
Because of issues with the community’s water treatment plant, the City of Thunder Bay was asked to host the evacuees.
Paxton said repairs to the water treatment plant can take up to two weeks to fix.
“We have projected out some capacity and right now it's expected to be about 1 to 2 weeks, but obviously that is monitored day by day with repairs,” he said.
“We have daily operational and situational meetings from the community as well as all the other partners that are involved in this exercise. So, we get updates from Northern Waterworks who are up there working on it as well as the ministries that are supporting it. We'll address the length of the evacuation as it becomes known to us."
