Not long after dawn, the first convoy began to roll: a long, slow parade of cars and trucks stretched along Highway 63, moving south toward Fort McMurray.
For hundreds of evacuees — thousands by day’s end — it will be a grim, sad and surreal journey, as they drive through the burned city they fled just 72 hours ago.
‘You don’t really care about your house so much anymore’7:18
After three days stranded in oilsands work camps north of the city, thousands of families are expected to be escorted south through their fire-ravaged community.
They will be the first residents to see the devastation left by a terrifying wildfire that tore into town Tuesday, raining embers and consuming neighbourhoods and, at times, seeming to threaten the entire city.
RCMP cruisers will escort groups of 50 vehicles at a time. Helicopters will watch from overhead. All intersections along the route will be controlled and blocked by police, to ensure no vehicles try to slip away from the convoy.
To watchers it may look, perhaps fittingly, like a funeral procession. When they reach the city, one of the first neighbourhoods they’ll see is Thickwood, on the right, the homes there untouched by the fire.
They’ll cross the Grant MacEwan Bridge over the Athabasca River, where down to the left they’ll see MacDonald Island Park, the refuge where the city set up an evacuation centre early in the week, before it, too, was evacuated.
They’ll roll south, with the hills around Abasand to the right and the downtown core to the left.
Climbing the hill out of the river valley, they’ll pass Beacon Hill, where hundreds of homes were lost. Atop the hill they will pass the ruined hulk of the Super 8 Motel, a Shell station that exploded in a fireball, and a trailer park that burned to ashes.
May 5 – 10:50 p.m. A brief message from Darby Allen #ymmfire pic.twitter.com/0hb9TkoYwH
South past the airport, at some point they’ll clear the fire zone, and the convoy will be released by police. From there, many people will make their way to Edmonton or Calgary, to be housed in evacuation centres or with family or friends.
Police say that if weather, fire and road conditions remain favourable, all of the estimated 1,500 vehicles will be moved through and out of the city Friday.
The fire, which continues to burn out of control, had scorched through more than 100,000 hectares by Friday morning.
When the city was evacuated on Tuesday, about 25,000 residents headed north, where oilsands companies put many of them up in work camps.
Premier Rachel Notley said about 7,000 of those people were evacuated Thursday on flights that took off from oil company runways near two of the camps. The province hopes to fly another 5,500 people out Friday.
Highway convoys are expected to move 500 cars and trucks through the city by the end of the day, Notley said.
@CP_Edmonton Hwy. 63 remains closed due to fire/smoke crossing the road/not safe for public travel. Industry groups working on solutions
Convoy just started moving toward Fort McMurray and #FortMacFire #ymm pic.twitter.com/Jebini44iH
“We’ve all seen the heartbreaking images taken by citizens travelling through Fort McMurray today,” Notley said. “And there is no doubt the damage is extensive and will take many months to repair.
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