Wow - that is pretty pathetic. Survivor is not important in the grand scheme of things - the life of that town is.

I pray that they are able to get things under control there quickly.

Mr. Seeler and I intentionally watch the news, switching from whatever we might have been watching when the news comes on (checking the hockey scores during commercials).  We turn to another channel if Survivor comes on.  

Yes, real life news should come before a fictional show.  And don't tell me that much of 'reality' shows isn't staged for dramatic effect.  Let me know what is happening in my country, and in the world I live in.  And don't try to make it entertaining.

I'm pretty sure the people of Slave Lake were too busy trying to save their town to watch either but I agree with both the Gals.

But then  I remember the days when news was News, reality was Real, fact was Factual and a Coke was just a coke....

LB

That's the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.

     Garrison Keillor

Absolutely not surprising. It has to do with money and contractual obligations. It has nothing to do with values. 

At the same time, the Rogers TV station I volunteer with can not cancel TV bingo without 3 months' notice. The law requires weekly broadcast and there are heavy penalties for cancelling the bingo broadcast for hockey. It has caused a lot of grief for Rogers TV as the Owen Sound Attack have been in the run for the OHL championship.

You also might wish to keep the members of St. Peter's Ecumenical Parish in your prayers. It is a shared ministry with the Anglican, Lutheran and United Churches.

http://spsharedministry.org/

It was frustrating even with channels that actually had news.  Right after hearing something about Slave Lake on the news (it sounded more like a warning, maybe a few places would be affected) I read on FB that half the town was on fire.  I realize news isn't instantaneous, but it took a while of active searching (and waiting for sites to be updated) to get accurate information from news websites.

Here, unless it was scheduled news there was no mention of it.  I looked on local channels.  Shows are often interrupted for major international news, I'm surprised they won't do the same for something local.  At the very least, they could have one of those bars at the bottom of the screen with the newsfeed.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/prairies/slave-lake-reeling...

1/3 of the town is gone.

yfrog.com/user/thisguydeya/photos 

We're clearly sending the wrong message to the news networks. Hopefully everyone switched channels to hear what they were missing.

The sad fact is that they are clearly driven by the attitudes and expectations of "us" the viewing public and have defined what we consider important according to what we have shown them with our viewing.

Who decides if they run a ribbon across the bottom of the screen. If it is the network, they fell short.

How dreadful!  And what a strange time of the year for forest fires!  It is like the situation they has in Russia last year, on a smaller scale, but it is not even summer yet!

Global warming?

The weather has been very strange so far this year, on the BC Coast is has been cold and rainy, not a sign of any warm or even dry weather.

Be sure to remember the town and residents in your prayers,

Hi Eastern Orthodox!

Very strange to have a fire at this time of year.  You would think the snow would bearly be melted up there. 

Apparently there are two significant times for forest fires:  one is in the heat of summer.  The other is just after the snow melts but before the trees and bushes break into leaf.  There is a lot of dead grasses and underbrush, and bare branches, without the moist green leaves to protect them. 

My mom said the news interrupted Survivor here...

As-salaamu alaikum

-Omni

We've had 6 weeks of the forest fire season already in Alberta...this is the normal time of year for wildfires. 

As we are surrounded by the smoke from the Slave Lake fires, I am thinking of the people I know who are from or connected to the community. This is such a tragedy.

Gord, have you heard anything about our Presbytery friends? 

I have found this to be a rough news day. The floods in Manitoba, flood warnings in BC, an earthquake on Haida Gwaii and the fires in Slave Lake. All we need are locusts.......

I think that the fire is on the other side of the lake from the Lesser Slave Lake Charge in this Presbytery.  The minister from the town of Slave LAke (where the UCCan is part of a tripartite ecumenical shared ministry) posted on FB this morning that they do not know about the church building as yet.  Some congregants have lost houses.  BUt my information is that all the people are safe.

When/if I here for sure about the church building I will pass the info on...

The same here in Muskoka - despite a wet April we had  an "Extreme" fire rating last weekend.

Snow melts into the watershed so does little to prevent drying conditions.  Winter is naturally dry (despite all that snow).  The ground cover of fall leaves and dead grasses dry quickly in spring sun as there is little leaf cover from above.  It takes a lot of rain to saturate the ground.  All it takes is a spark.

In areas of dense pines the problem is heightened.  The flames go down and then travel through the dry dead needles.  The pines themselves are dry from winter so the flames then travel up the trunks from below.  Once the fire becomes intense enough even rain can't put it out as the fire rages underground.

For those of us who live in such places the real danger comes from those who do not understand these conditions.  They burn the dead leaves or have outdoor fire pits under the pines.  My favourite was a bunch who were setting off firecrackers on a May 24 weekend- on an island no less - in the middle of the night.  They thought by shooting them out into the lake they were safe.  Except there was a wind blowing, blew the sparks back and set the bush on fire.  They were lucky, as were the hundred or more cottagers who lived on that island, a neighbour had a fire pump and the fire didn't spread.

May 24 is this weekend - play safe.

LB

Only you can prevent forest fires.
      Smokey Bear

Does anyone know if the gov't pays compensation to those who have lost their homes in Slave Lake or Manitoba ? ( In New Orleans ( Katrina)  I don't believe the people received anything unless they had their own home or flood  ins. That's the U.S. of course ) 

Where will those who have lost everything in Slave Lake  go to live? Floods and fires......what a week for Canada!

P.S. I'm reading comments on the CBC. It seems Quebec is the only province that has a Disaster Fund.

All provinces provide disaster relief to varying amounts depending on the disaster.  As doesw the federal government, again depending on decisions made at the time of the disaster.

Not necessarily a standing fund, more often emergency funding set aside from reserves

Here is a FB album.  Devastating pictures.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150599730975527.674018.53991...

A view of the fires from NASA

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=50635&src=eoa-iotd

The Feds provide assistance to the province needing the help through the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements (DFAA), administered by Public Safety Canada   These funds go to the provinces not individuals.

From two reports in the Globe & Mail it appears the townspeople were caught unaware of the danger and were left with little time to make a full evacuation.  Frankly it is amazing that no one died...

****

A communications meltdown hampered the town’s efforts to get word out once the winds shifted suddenly. The town had been using the local radio station, but its message was hardly dire – pop songs played in between sporadic news updates, which as the day dragged on were rarely timely.

Eventually, the power failed. The radio signal died. Other than Internet postings, there was no public warning.

“They’re saying check our website, check Facebook. Who’s walking around with an iPhone or a laptop?” said Ken Caissie,

Stunned Slave Lake evacuees left without answers May 17 2011
 

****

Slave Lake residents wonder why call to evacuate never came , May 17, 2011
 

This is a repeat of Walkerton 2000. The water supply, as you remember, was contaminated. The local Public Health Unit had few contacts for the radio stations covering Walkerton. The coverage of the boil water advisory was incomplete. People died. 

 It could be wrong, but from what I heard the radio station did everything right.  At first, it was just a warning, (that's what I was still hearing on the news even when things were bad).  Doing a few announcements between songs would have been enough.  The evacuation order didn't come until things changed very quickly and in certain areas there wasn't much time.  I'm guessing, but I think once the evacuation notice actually came, the radio station wasn't playing songs and was just giving information until they lost power.

ETA: I just read that there wasn't an evacuation notice before the radio station was on fire.  It sounds like they may have waited a little too long to call it (probably because of the highways though).  You can't blame a station for only airing the information they were given.

Some people probably did avoid evacuating because the highways were closed.  For a while, everyone was supposed to hang out in a parking lot.  That's hard on people with breathing and cardiovascular problems, and what about people with very limited mobility?

People are understandable frustrated and upset about the lack of notice to evacuate, but if an order is made before things get bad people tend to ignore them (especially when things are worse by highways and they are closed).

 I will point out that the radio personalities were working right to the end, when the radio station went down they went to facebook.  That's one of the places where I got information from when the news was useless.

Here is a PAStoral LEtter from our COnference PResident

http://ministerialmutterings.blogspot.com/2011/05/slave-lake-fires.html

Watching the news last night Mr. Seeler and I were struck by the number of vehicles left behind and destroyed in the fire.  While we understand that there was only one road out, wouldn't most people load their families, their pets, and whatever they could grab into their car or truck and take off out that road.  Why were so many vehicles left behind?  

 No place to get gas, they would rather not be stranded on a highway with flames and so took the buses set up for the evacuations.  I heard of a family where someone was a pilot, they took off on the plane.  Most 2 car families probably only took one vehicle.

Some people also may have walked to a store or a friends or the beach, and it was too late to go back to their home to get what they wanted.

Many of the people also worked in the oilfields.  Company trucks are commonly provided to people.  Some of these are not supposed to be driven for personal use, and even if they were some people probably decided to take their own vehicles.  I didn't see a lot of cars left, but did notice a lot of pickup trucks.

I don't think it is anything like Walkerton.  The fire is a natural disaster and it happened very suddenly.  Forest fires can be small and controlled one minute, then a strong wind comes up and suddenly all hell breaks loose.  This happens a lot in BC but fortunately usually not in a populated area.  But sometimes a fire will happen close to towns, like the Okanagan Mountain fire in 2003  and the Mclure Fire in 2003 which almost burnt down the town of Barrier. 

My husband is a forester, and he refuses to live in an "interface" area near woods, for fear of fire. 

In the US, where population is more dense, it is not unusual for people to be killed in wild fires.  It happens quite often.  For example in October 2007, in California, 1500 homes were destroyed and 9 people died because of wildfires brought on by drought and  the strong Santa Ana winds.  

It is very lucky that there has been no loss of human life in the Slave Lake fire.   I worry about pets that might have been left behind.

Good for Peter. He's in Yellowknife still?

Geo just finished his recertification for forest fire fighting and is now out fighting Northern  Albertan fires. They have had a few intense scenarios already.  Sure starts early. 

Yes he is

Mely, I agree.  This reminded me more of Pine Lake than Walkerton.  Getting the info out during a quick natural disaster can be difficult.  I once drove through a tornado (well stopped on the side of the road when I was bombared with hail) and didn't realize it until later.  I was listening to the radio, but the emergency warning system didn't work because of the tornado.  Luckily, it was small.

Gord, thanks for posting about the church.  Please keep us (me?) updated later on about what can be done to help.  I'll eventually be moving closer to Slave Lake, and time permitting might be able to help tutor kids since school was interrupted or something.  People tend to forget about the long term needs.

Geo, stay safe out there!!!

The Slave Lake fires were on the television news here in Oz.

Bushfires are a feature of every summer here - houses, stock, wildlife and often people lose their lives.

As regards evacuation, it's drilled into us that you mustn't make the decision to leave your house - or stay and fight the fires, at the last moment.

More often than not, those that are killed leave their houses too late and are caught by the fires - or crash their cars fleeing in panic as the smoke  causes poor visibility.

Human nature being what it is - there are those that refuse to leave their homes even when requested to do so. They've worked hard to own their home - many can't afford insurance - and they can't quite believe that they could lose their lives.

Most still do not know if their house has been spared or not.  There are still flare ups of hot spots.  I would imagine it would be hard to sleep on a cot, with a bunch of people near you especially when you're used to having a nice bed and privacy.  Hopefully they can at least get out of the shelters soon.

Our niece is a volunteer firefighter in an area surrounded by fires. She says their bag is ready (the bag with ID, medicines, etc).

Her sister-in-law was in Slave Lake and said the situation changed so fast (within an hour she said) and that the winds were ridiculous. They were thrown a curve ball. Saturday, they thought the two fires could be contained. (anyone who has fought a fire knows how fast things can change)

On Sunday, they sat in church, not tuned in. (How many times are there hours that go by we are not "tuned in"?) They were with friends after church talking and thought the smoke was drifting in (far off fire but smoke in the winds, but better check) and tried to hear something and the radio was dead.... then they were hearing cops on megaphones saying "Get out, now! Save yourselves!"

In emergencies, we tend to point at things that went wrong. We have the clarity of hindsight and the freedom to think, we forget it was an emergency and emotions running high and decisions made in an instant.... emergencies sometimes do not arise providing plenty of time to think or notice and what we rely on when they arise can fail.

 I think of my folks in hurricane season. There is notice, but if the radio and TV stations were off air, how would they know a storm took a turn? The conditions an emergency happens in can make matters all the worse. The approaching hurricane spawns tornadoes that knock out communication....

If we point out things and do so to learn, it can help in the next emergency (but we have to understand it won't be the same). If we point at things to lay blame and put the feelings of anger, desperation, pain... onto something, someone... then there is IMO nothing good that comes from that.

This is my personal pet peeve - too often the blame game gets centre stage and the ability to effectively criticize, and therefore discover solutions, becomes lost.

No one is at fault - not even the unpredictability of nature - but there are always lessons to be learned from mistakes and the only way to learn from them is to admit they occurred.

There is a consistent thread that runs through disasters like Slave Lake and Katrina - an over reliance on technology and a reluctance to act proactively because it may be unnecessary. 

I am the "err on the side of caution" type - particularly when it comes to Mother Nature. 

Nothing can be done to undo the trauma experienced by those living in Slave Lake but hopefully lessons will be learned and the next community will be spared from a similar tragedy; perhaps in doing so the people of Slave Lake will get some small comfort as well.

LB

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We must not say every mistake is a foolish one.
     Cicero