Williams Lake Under City Wide Evacuation Alert due to Potential Weather Events

A City wide Evacuation Alert has been issued due to weather events that are being forecast for Wednesday.

“This predicted weather has the potential to push fires to the West of Williams Lake towards the City at a rapid pace,” said the City on Monday.

An evacuation alert has also been issued for the Williams Lake Fringe to the Fraser River by the Cariboo Regional District.

• All areas east of the Fraser River from the existing evacuation order at Soda Creek to 9.0 km south of the Sheep Creek bridge, including English Road.
• Directly East to the southern end of Chimney Lake, continuing east to Wright Station Road at the north end of Lac La Hache.
• All areas west of highway 97 from Wright Station Road to the Williams Lake City limits, north along highway 97, including all fringe areas of the City of Williams Lake including the areas of Fox Mountain, Pine Valley, Commodore Crescent, Glendale, Wildwood, Bull Mountain and Deep Creek not already evacuated, to the existing evacuation order area at Soda Creek.

At this time the alert is precautionary but it is important to give residents ample warning to allow everyone to make all necessary preparations.

Preparing for evacuation:

• Pack your identification, clothing and medications for at least three days
• Alert family and loved ones of the situation, give them the location of the reception centre so they can locate you in the event of an evacuation
• Make arrangements for your pets
• More info on planning go to www.williamslake.ca and click on Emergency Planning for information and links.

An EVACUATION ALERT is a notification of POTENTIAL danger that might arise. An evacuation alert does NOT mean you have to evacuate; rather, you should be prepared to evacuate with very short notice. The reason evacuation alerts are issued is to notify residents of the potential for loss of life from unstable fire conditions.

This alert may be followed by an order to evacuate and when an evacuation order is issued you must leave your home immediately.

An emergency reception centre has been established at Lake City Secondary (Carson Campus) and any persons self-evacuating should report to this centre. Any person who wishes to evacuate now but are physically unable to do soshould call 250-392- 2364 and assistance will be arranged.

Should the status change, the public will be notified immediately through all means possible and everyone is encouraged to monitor local radio stations, legitimate social media sites, as well as the City of Williams Lake Facebook page, Twitter and website.