Update: Eabametoong now reports that seven aircraft evacuated about 460 members to Niagara Falls by Saturday night. More evacuation flights are planned on Sunday.
CC-130 Hercules aircraft of the Canadian Armed Forces began the evacuation of residents of Eabametoong First Nation, or Fort Hope earlier on Saturday.
Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Response Jill Dunlop says that her ministry requested federal assistance on Wednesday.
“What that allows us to do is to move things along quicker,” says the Minister. “So rather than having to wait the 48 hour period, we have the ministries on standby.”
Patty Hajdu, the Member of Parliament for Thunder Bay—Superior North, described the coordinated evacuation as “an excellent example of the collaboration that’s happening between Ontario and the federal government.”
She explained that it is necessary for the governments to coordinate “because there’s so many moving parts… We can’t just send in assets if we’re going to be interfering with other assets and we don’t understand what’s actually happening on the ground.”
The full statement of the Canadian Armed Forces can be viewed here.
The first aircraft arrived in Fort Hope on Saturday afternoon:
