Published in Windspeaker newspaper | November 22, 2012 | Circulation: 145,000
“We’re still at Mother Nature’s mercy.”
Looking back on his community’s helicopter evacuation from Michipicoten First Nation in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy on Oct. 29, Chief Joe Buckell told Windspeaker that the reserve near Wawa, Ont. has learned an important lesson for the future.
“We’re going to start preparing for this,” he added, describing the helicopters full of escaping reserve residents. “This was just an eye-opener – a lesson.
“We’re working on the plan right now, with the municipality too. We’re all in this together… If it ever happens again, which I hope it doesn’t, we’re prepared.”
When Hurricane Sandy hit with full force on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard –shuttering New York’s famed subway system, shattering neighbourhoods and killing at least 70 people, including two in Canada – its superstorm remnants blazed north across the border.
The people in Michipicoten already knew that weather knows no boundaries. The 700-person community on the shores of Lake Superior already faces its share of storms and wind.
David P Ball 