B Flat

We operate a bed and breakfast. Our house is mostly quite suitable for it. A few minor renovations are planned to make it even more suitable.

Last Wednesday the city of Yellowknife, NWT, issued a mandatory evacuation for the residents. They wanted everyone out of the city by Friday afternoon. That’s ~23,000 humans, plus pets and vehicles and precious things, just in case. And the only road out is through our town of ~4,000 humans.

Our town notified we the people the same day to expect a substantial increase in traffic in the coming hours and for the next few days. Fuel stations have line-ups. Electric cars don’t work under such conditions, so thank goodness we have so many fuel stations in our town.

Anyway, late Wednesday we began to get booking requests for our bed and breakfast rooms. We filled all four rooms, put down a couple air mattresses, and then someone put a tent up on the front lawn and slept there as well. A cat and a dog spent the night in our garage in their carriers, and another set spent night in their owner and owner’s friend’s truck.

Thursday we filled the house with people and a bird in a cage. Friday we filled the house with even more people. They were all so grateful for a comfy bed and some uninterrupted sleep. Some said they’d been on the road 16 hours due to how slow the traffic was in places. Others said it felt like they’d driven through Hell with fire glowing red on both sides of the road in places.

We serve breakfast for the guests who choose to be awake and lively at 8:00am. About half take us up on it. Conversation with the evacuees was informative and interesting. Hearing about their experiences over hot breakfast and coffee brought back some memories of the flood that destroyed our house in spring of 2020. We could definitely connect and feel with them.