Within 24 hours, the Canadian Red Cross has been able to distribute more than half of the $50 million it’s providing to Fort McMurray wildfire evacuees.
Immediate financial assistance has been sent to 64,000 people by e-transfer. The financial process is the largest and fastest distribution of immediate funds to people in Canadian Red Cross history.
“This is a precedent-setting effort on the part of Red Cross,” CEO Contrad Sauve said. “It reflects the outpouring of generosity from Canadians who are clearly making a difference in people’s lives.”
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Last week, the entire city of Fort McMurray was evacuated because of a wildfire crews later described as “a beast.” The wildfire destroyed more than 2,400 structures and has grown to more than 240,000 hectares in size.
As of Friday, people had donated more than $86 million to the cause through the Red Cross.
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The fire represents the largest domestic appeal in the organization’s history. It has four call centres taking questions and registration from evacuees as well as donations from other Canadians.
“Seven hundred personnel are on this response,” Jen McManus, provincial director of Red Cross Alberta, said. “It’s really unprecedented on all fronts.”
She said, until now, the biggest response she’s seen was to the June 2013 floods that washed across one-quarter of Alberta and devastated parts of Calgary and High River.
“This is bigger and Alberta’s been very busy,” McManus said. “It’s quite an honour to be working alongside Albertans again.”
The Red Cross pledged emergency financial assistance to evacuees ($600 per adult, $300 per child) while the province offered $1,250 per adult and $500 per dependent.
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For those who cannot use electronic banking, the Red Cross will get the funds to you another way.
“If you do not have the digital savvy-ness to do online banking, we will reach out to you. We have everybody registered almost,” McManus said. “We have contact information.”
Fire evacuees are asked to register at redcross.ca no matter where they are staying.
Both the federal and provincial governments have said they will match donations to the fire relief effort.
“The Government of Canada… May 3 to 31, individual gifts of Canadians to the Canadian Red Cross will be matched. That is a tremendous gesture,” McManus said. She said the Red Cross was working with the Alberta government on the details of its matching program.
The organization is warning people to be on the lookout for scams. The Red Cross is not doing any door-to-door canvassing for donations and will never ask for cash-in-hand donations.
“Online, from an evacuee perspective, there will never be an ask for your banking information,” McManus explained.
Anyone who witnesses this kind of behaviour is asked to contact local authorities.
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