As far back as anyone can remember, Cochrane has been an annual refuge for people fleeing spring flooding in communities further north. This year, however, Cochrane is sitting it out, because of COVID-19.
Fire chief Richard Vallée– who’s also the emergency management coordinator – says all the agencies usually involved all have issue with staffing a response, due to changes brought about by COVID-19.
“Just because we have three different places where they do stay, three different hotels,” he explains, “we do have a location where they do go to get their meals, so that would be another hardship that we’d have.”
That’s because of the ban on gatherings of more than five people.
“Anything would be surmountable. I mean we could figure something out. We can always drop off the meals and stuff like that. It’s just the whole thing with COVID being there, it just adds a little bit more stress for everybody that’s dealing with it. I’m talking about agencies like the hospital or EMS, you know?”
No evacuations from the coast of James Bay have yet been ordered.