Host community logistics and advanced preparation: Insights from wildfire evacuations in Alberta

Abstract

This paper examines the experiences of three host communities in Alberta involved in supporting and accommodating evacuees during the record 2023 wildfire season in Canada. Exploring host community service provision is a small but important part of a growing body of research that attempts to understand challenges faced by hosts when evacuations take place. Wildfire displacements can have long-lasting and deep social impacts, and the ability of host communities’ to implement socially aware and holistic emergency management plans and coordinate with key stakeholders is an important area of inquiry. When accommodating evacuees, hosts may face social services strains, uncertainties regarding cost recovery, and traffic and hospitality congestion. As such, this paper deploys case study methods seeking answers to three research questions stemming from the 2023 Alberta Wildfires: 1) How well prepared were communities to host evacuees?; 2) What challenges did they encounter?; and 3) What lessons can be learned from their experiences? Semi-structured interviews (n = 27) across the three cases of High Level, Whitecourt, and Hinton revealed important insights regarding community preparedness, community-specific challenges, and cross-cutting lessons learned. Major findings demonstrate the importance of intercommunity coordination, rapid needs assessments of incoming evacuees, planning efforts to provide adequate accommodations, and increased awareness around disaster relief programs and incident command training.