EMO Asking Communities To Be “Host Ready”

The Chief of Emergency Management Ontario is asking local communities to be “host ready”.
Speaking in Dryden, Allison Stuart stressed that area leaders must be prepared in the event of evacuations this summer.
Stuart says the province looks at a number of factors when deciding where to house evacuees.
She notes becoming a host community depends on timing, accommodations, policing, spiritual services and recreation.
The guidelines were drafted following the waves of evacuations in the far north in 2011.
Stuart admits they were caught off-guard that year.
Stuart says the province is still trying to address host community concerns surrounding liability, meal rates and who covers damages.
In 2011, some 4,400 people from several northern First Nations were forced to live elsewhere because of raging forest fires near their homes.