In an office less than a block away from a scorched section of Jasper, the town’s small Community Outreach Services team is inundated with phone calls, emails and in-person appointments from locals looking for help.
Demand for social supports has skyrocketed in Jasper after one-third of structures in the Alberta mountain town burned in this summer’s wildfire.
Residents were forced to evacuate on July 22, not knowing what would remain when they returned over three weeks later. In the end, 358 buildings were destroyed, equalling over 800 homes including apartment and condo units.
“Pre-wildfire we were seeing five to eight new clients a month,” said Christopher Read, the municipality’s director of community development.
“Now we’re seeing five to eight a day still. So our numbers are 10 times what they used to be.”
WATCH | Surging demand for wildfire-recovery support in Jasper:
Jasper is hiring more outreach workers to handle the surge of new clients in the 5,000-resident rocky mountain town. As the CBC’s Acton Clarkin reports, the emotional healing process after a disaster can be long and complex.
To manage the surge in demand, the town is in the process of hiring three new recovery outreach workers. That’s in addition to two other recently hired outreach workers.
The staff are being brought on to help Jasperites impacted by the wildfire find and access lines of support. They are not counsellors, but they can make referrals to disaster counsellors, help navigate government aid systems and assist with setting recovery-related goals.
Justin Barr has been living and working in Jasper since March 2023. His home made it through the wildfire, but he is now working reduced hours as his employer’s business gets back up and running.
Barr has been relying on Community Outreach Services staff to help him get financial aid and other disaster-recovery services. He said it’s difficult to imagine life without the local support.
“If this didn’t exist, there would be a lot of families who would be completely devastated. There wouldn’t be anyone to turn to. There wouldn’t be any resources. It would be incredibly hard,” said Barr.
“People would have to move. People would probably be homeless.”
‘Symptoms of depression and anxiety’
People will have emotional and psychological stressors after the wildfire, said Toronto-based clinical psychologist Dr. Katy Kamkar.
“Natural disasters can trigger or exacerbate symptoms of depression and anxiety. Including symptoms related to acute stress or later on post-traumatic stress,” said Kamkar, a former chair of the Canadian Psychological Association’s traumatic stress section.
“Often we hear feelings of sadness, hopelessness, helplessness, feeling powerless.”
According to Kamkar, these feelings are natural, and that getting support — whether it be emotional, financial or otherwise — is an essential part of the healing process.
“Any support groups could be helpful towards emotional recovery, towards a sense of belonging and to know that we are not alone.”
Every person is going to be impacted differently, and people may need both short-term and long-term support, she said.
“So if we are talking about loss of lives, homes, possessions, communities … the grieving process can be complex, can become prolonged,” said Kamkar.
Sithara Fernando has first-hand experience dealing with long-term emotional effects after a disaster. She survived a major wildfire in 2016 in Fort McMurray, Alta.
That fire forced Fernando and 90,000 others to evacuate, and ended up burning 2,400 homes and buildings.
Fernando moved out of Fort McMurray to Edmonton in 2019, but lives with PTSD still.
“There’s days where the wind is blowing just right and it smells a certain way, or the sky looks a certain way and it takes me back. It’s one of my triggers for my PTSD. And I recognize that is just a part of me now,” said Fernando.
“It gets better with time, but it definitely doesn’t go away.”
Fernando’s advice for people struggling is for them to be kind to themselves.
“You’re not alone in any of this. There are communities of people who are ready to support you,” she said.
In Jasper, Christopher Read is happy to see the positive impacts of his outreach team’s work over the past five months, and wants to keep the momentum going.
“I am very impressed and encouraged by the fact that the community is ramping up as the need ramps up. It’s really quite beautiful.”
