u/LoudAmp

I hope everyone affected by the recent fires is safe. I can only imagine how stressful and disruptive it must be to leave your home.

If anyone here has been through a wildfire evacuation, would you be willing to share what happened and what you wish you had known beforehand? I figure it could be useful for the rest of us in case we ever find ourselves in the same situation.

A few things I’m particularly curious about:

• Did you wait for an evacuation order, or did you decide to leave beforehand?
• Where did you end up staying? hotel, evacuation centre, friends/family?
• Did you stay nearby of go to a major city?
• Did you have trouble finding somewhere to stay?
• Did the government or insurance company provide financial or other assistance? How quickly did that help come?
• What would you do differently next time?
• What should we as citizens be asking governments to improve or help us with?

I’ve been following some of the wildfire evacuations in Western Canada and became curious about what happens operationally after an evacuation order is issued? If you suddenly have hundreds or thousands of people who need accommodation, meals, transportation, pet support, etc., how is that actually coordinated? I imagine the answer "we plan ahead of time and we execute with software that does for this? (I work in B2C tech, so I'm always curious about the world of B2B and B2G tech)