With the entire community of Merritt, B.C., under evacuation order, reception centres have been set up in Kamloops and Kelowna.
At the Parkinson Recreation Centre in Kelowna, Emergency Support Services Director Mel Caprarie says that they are preparing to welcome hundreds of evacuees.
“Our role is to ensure that people have accommodations. We will put them in a hotel and we will feed them for 72 hours. If they need clothing or other necessities we will take care of that as well,” Caprarie said.
One evacuee told Global News that the situation has been stressful and exhausting.
“I just feel completely nuts. I have three kids, cats, a lizard and I have a house,” said evacuee Patricia Anderson. “We have lived in Merritt for only a year and we’ve had to deal with fire evacuations and now flooding evacuations.”
Anderson added that her family left only moments after the evacuation order was put in place.
“I am a planner and I made lists for every room in our house. This morning when we got put on alert, everything was already planned all we had to do was just grab everything and head out the door. So we gathered everything by the door and when the order came down we left 10 minutes later.”
Emergency services are asking Merritt residents with odd-numbered houses to go towards Kamloops, and those with even-numbered houses are being directed to Kelowna — if they do not have family or friends to stay with.