Red Cross volunteer. Photo submitted by the Red Cross.
Finding somewhere to stay when an emergency forces you from your home has been challenging this summer.
When bricks fell from a Saint John apartment building on July 30th and displaced tenants, Red Cross volunteers couldn’t find any vacancies, forcing people to travel by taxi to Moncton.
Bill Lawlor of the Canadian Red Cross says in his 24 years of working in emergency management, he’s never seen this kind of vacancy shortage.
“Particularly in urban centres, rural is a little different. In rural communities, they don’t often have access to hotels and motels,” Lawlor said.
Lawlor said most Atlantic Canadian hotel rooms are booked in advance and the Red Cross often needs accommodations on short notice for displaced people in an emergency.
He said people are often surprised at how often they respond to disasters.
“From April to June in New Brunswick alone, we had 132 of those responses with 417 people impacted. Not all of them required support in terms of accommodation,” Lawlor said.
Across Atlantic Canada, during the same period, there were 369 responses with 1,400 people needing support.
When a disaster such as a #housefire, #flood or #evacuation occurs, Emergency Management #volunteers are on the frontlines helping Atlantic Canadians to get back on their feet.
Please consider the #RedCross in your community. https://t.co/OAfLxFnAQh pic.twitter.com/vhBQQ9h9LE
— CanRedCrossATL (@CanRedCrossATL) August 15, 2022
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