KAMLOOPS — The Thompson Nicola Regional District has opened a Resiliency Centre for wildfire evacuees.
The centre, located at the Soccer Central Lounge on McArthur Island, provides evacuees with important resources.
The TNRD hoped the centre will simplify the process for evacuees planning their next steps.
“This Resiliency Centre is being set up to provide a one-stop place for the evacuees of the wildfires to come and get a lot of the questions answered, and to try to plan to see where they are going to go, what their next steps are going to be,” said Dale Kronebusch, manager of the centre.
“There’s going to be insurance providers, there’s going to Service Canada here, there’s going to be Red Cross to do the needs assessments, and there’s going to be some wellness people as well so they can give them a hand.”
For evacuees, like Steve Jansen from Cache Creek, the Resiliency Centre provides an opportunity to get the ball rolling on insurance claims before returning home.
“It’s good to be prepared,” Jansen said. “If you set up with your insurance there, and you’ve got a claim going, it will stop the mad rush when you finally get back home. You’re going to have lots of other things to do when you get back home so you might as well get started on the simple things you can while your sitting here twiddling your thumbs.”
