Emergency

​The Packing House is a meeting place for the people of Spences Bridge, whether it’s to have a cup of coffee, catch up on the latest news and gossip, or chat with owner and local politician Steve Rice.
It’s also a stopping point for people on the road to elsewhere in B.C. Or, it was, until last summer when massive wildfires stopped the flow of tourist traffic through Spences Bridge.

While Red Cross volunteers are known for their resourcefulness and dedication, there’s one team that really goes a step above and beyond: the Supporting Evacuation and Repatriation Team (SERT) team.

Omar Abdullahi, a social worker who lives in Winnipeg, volunteers with the safety and wellbeing team of the Canadian Red Cross. He is working with evacuees from the northern Manitoba wildfires.
Before coming to Canada, Omar and his family were refugees from the Somalian civil war. When he was about 10 years old, his family, including his six sisters and two brothers, fled Mogadishu for the Kenyan border.

The residents of the Pauingassi First Nation were evacuated from their community on May 25, due to encroaching wildfires. A remote, and by all accounts, wildly beautiful community, Pauingassi is only accessible by helicopter and float plane. 

Every time Dan hears about another family affected by a house fire, his mind takes him back to a day in March 2017, when his family had their own unimaginable experience. Read about how the Red Cross helped, and how a treasured memory was saved. 

As the flood waters in Kootenay Boundary Regional District in B.C. receded, the extent of the damage was revealed. The Canadian Red Cross is supporting the recovery efforts by providing cleanup kit, as well as direct financial assistance to impacted households in need on a case-by-case basis.

Over the weekend of May 12, the Kettle River in Grand Forks, B.C. flooded into the downtown region forcing several low-lying areas to evacuate. The Canadian Red Cross is helping meet the urgent needs of flood-impacted residents in Grand Forks and the rest of the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary. We encourage evacuated residents to register with Emergency Social Services or the Red Cross. 

As flood waters begin to recede in communities along the St. John River in New Brunswick, residents are turning their attention to cleaning up and recovering from the disaster. The Canadian Red Cross is offering financial assistance in the form of an electronic funds transfer of $300 per household to assist residents returning home after the evacuation.