Family friend in Winnipeg opens home to Yellowknife teen fleeing fire terror

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This article was published 21/08/2023 (830 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After a frightening, exhausting, wildfire-fleeing journey across several provinces that began last Wednesday, Yellowknife teen Abby Nevitt is finally able to rest, thanks to a family friend in Winnipeg.

Abby Nevitt’s family received an evacuation notice Wednesday. She and her brother left the Northwest Territories’ capital that night, destined for Edmonton, a 15-hour drive away.

They stopped about halfway in High Level, Alta., where she ended up sleeping in a friend’s camper because the nearby evacuation centre was full.

“There’s only one road in and out, and it was really unsure whether that road was going to close or not, because the fire was so close to Yellowknife… it took a long time to get out,” Nevitt told the Free Press Monday.

More than 2,700 kilometres from Yellowknife, Winnipegger Jennifer Keith knew she had to help. She lived in the Northwest Territories for almost 10 years, and is a friend of Nevitt’s father. She offered their family an extra bedroom in her home, and on Sunday afternoon, Nevitt’s father called to ask if the offer still stood.

“Just picturing people on that drive, and leaving their homes, and not knowing… I just wanted to help out people,” Keith said. “I can’t imagine how difficult it is.”

After staying in Edmonton for two nights, Nevitt decided to take Keith up on her offer, and flew to Winnipeg Sunday.

“It’s just super-uncertain. There are a bunch of people who have no idea what’s happening who have to pay for hotels out of their pockets, because they don’t know how this evacuation is going down,” she said.

“Who knows whether I would have gotten a hotel or not, I might have, but a lot of people are staying at the evacuation centre, a lot of people have to stay in their cars, just simply because there’s not enough hotels.”

Nevitt’s brother is still in Edmonton. Her mother and sister are in a small community in the Northwest Territories not under an evacuation order, and her father is also there, co-ordinating support evacuees from Tlicho First Nation.

She’s not the only young person in Yellowknife who has had to travel long distances along to find accommodations.

“A lot of my friends around my age, they had to make a long drive down — 16-, 17-hour drive — down (south) by themselves to Edmonton, they had to meet up with family there,” she said.

“It escalated so fast. People were really scrambling for the best option.”

Above all, however, Nevitt is optimistic. An avid basketball player back home, Keith reached out to her community to ask how Nevitt could play here. In just a day, Nevitt received a month-long pass to the YMCA, and a friend of Keith’s set up a chance for her to play with a local team.

“Now I know that my family’s safe, and even though we’re in different places, I know we’re going to eventually go back to Yellowknife,” she said.

“It was stressful at first, but I’m not as stressed anymore. It’s a lot better now that I’m in Winnipeg.”

Nearly 70 per cent of the Northwest Territories and almost all of the 20,000 people in Yellowknife have fled as 236 active fires were burning as of Monday. Two flights of evacuees landed in Winnipeg over the weekend and another arrived Monday, bringing 51 evacuees and 11 pets.

Most of them are staying in hotels.

According to the Northwest Territories government website, no new fires have started over the past 24 hours. Several communities, including Fort Simpson, Fort Smith and Fort Providence, were listed as “extreme” on the territorial government’s fire-danger bulletin.

While there are no additional evacuee flights to Winnipeg planned, that could quickly change, a provincial spokesperson said.

“Flights to Winnipeg are co-ordinated based on demand,” the spokesperson said.

One of the people on Monday’s flight is 49-year-old Matthew, who had to leave his home in Yellowknife and is staying at a Winnipeg hotel.

The last three days have been nothing short of “hell on earth,” he told the Free Press.

“I’ve lost all my stuff. I don’t know whether it’s gonna be there when we get back. I can’t get a hold of anybody. I’ve got no money, I’m on disability,” said Matthew, who asked that his last name not be published, standing outside the hotel he’s staying at.

His goal Monday morning was to reach a Red Cross support worker who could help direct him to resources. He said he was taken to the hotel and the cost of meals has been covered, but he hasn’t received much else. There’s no way to keep the few items of clothing he brought with him clean, and he’s not sure if he’ll be charged if he uses the hotel’s phones to try reaching loved ones who have also been displaced.

“Basically, there’s been no funding available. So we have no cell phone, we have no way to contact family or friends, we can’t do laundry, we don’t have all our clothes… it’s just chaos,” he said.

The Northwest Territories branch of United Way is offering funding to communities and organizations in Manitoba that can provide support to evacuees, including urgent essentials such as food, hygiene products and gasoline.

“It’s things you think, if you had time to plan for a trip, you would have brought with you, but when you get a couple hour’s notice you just pull together the very basics, and now we have 28,000 people scrambling to fulfil those basic needs,” said David Connelly, the chair of the Northwest Territories United Way’s emergency response committee.

Requests for support equate to hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the United Way has to give, he said.

“We’ve received over 50 requests from organizations to help meet the urgent and critical needs of the residents under evacuation order, and I’ll be very frank, it’s overwhelmed our ability to raise the money to provide the support that’s being asked for,” Connelly said.

Those looking to donate can do so online.

— With files from Danielle Da Silva

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca