Well, I wasn’t going to tell my troubles, but damnit, my butt is chafed.
Exactly a year ago my small town was devastated by a flood. The biggest in territory history. Over 400 homes damaged or destroyed in a town of 3500 people. The damage may take a decade to repair.
Last week a forest fire went from zero to evacuating my community in a day. Destroyed a bunch of buildings and my ENTIRE town is evacuated, second time in a year. Now we aren’t like y’all: there is nowhere to evacuate to. Wife and I evacuated via a five hour drive to the nearest city. We are sleeping at a friends place. Thousands of others are sleeping in hockey rinks, campers, some in their cars. Here’s the part in that cheeses my danish:
because wife and I work we pay out of pocket. Those with jobs staying in hotels pay their own way. The gas to drive here was well over $100. This is the Arctic. Cheapest hotel is $160, most are over $200 per night. It been five days now, gonna be a while yet and my town can still burn to the ground.
We get ZERO government or other assistance. Those that are on income support or welfare get $1000 per person. Those are people without jobs, mortgages, or payments of any kind. They get $1000 each to spend on booze and crack, and they are. I get nothing. That chafes me.
Pictures taken from our bedroom of the flames and from the front yard of the smoke.
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