Weather balloons had been used to hoist small boxes filled with ornaments that had the processed family photos in them as well as vouchers for a free flight to anywhere the company flies. The company held a concert and set up a 30-foot Christmas tree where they gave out food and hot chocolate.įamilies posed for photos when they first arrived and, at the end of the evening, they were told to gaze upward. WestJet had kept in contact with families through a Facebook page and organized a party in town for them. “You don’t know what you’re missing until you go to reach for it,” she said. A planned holiday baking day, disrupted when she realized that the cookie cutters were gone, was just another reminder of what was lost in the spring. Recent weeks leading into the Christmas season has been particularly tough, she added. “We had to go into the house and throw a lot of stuff away,” Clarke said. When they did return, their homes remained but were badly damaged by smoke and water. Popejoy and his parents would not go back to town for four months while his grandparents were back after three. “My mom thought the evacuation was only going to be a few hours but she was so, so, so wrong.”
His dad got him out of school at about noon,” said Clarke, recalling the day the family realized they would have to evacuate the town.
“Rhys and his parents live in Beacon Hill and he was at school.
