GOOD WORKS
‘A New Normal’ That’s what Mavis Ure, P.Eng., says she and other Fort McMurray residents are striving to establish. She gave birth to twins the morning that the city was evacuated. Meanwhile, Rachel Drapeau, P.Eng., six months pregnant, found herself walking across the city as her Beacon Hill neighbourhood burned. Both have returned to the community to raise their families, continue their careers, and support the city as it rebuilds
Just four hours after giving birth to twins via a scheduled C-section, Mavis Ure, P.Eng., and her baby boys were loaded onto a city bus, joining the mass evacuation of Northern Lights Regional Hospital. It was around 4 p.m. on May 3. She and her husband, Curtis Ure, P.Eng., barely had time to celebrate the arrival of Waylon and Garrett before a nurse asked Mavis if she could get out of bed and walk. “I still couldn't feel my legs 100 per cent,” she recalls. The couple had arrived at the hospital that morning, thinking the nearby wildfires were under control. They never imagined they’d soon be on a bus, taking an arduous eight-hour ride north of the city to seek shelter at Suncor’s Firebag camp. “We left the hospital in a haze of smoke. It was dark out and there was ash falling,” says Mavis. Thankfully, Mavis’s mom was with them to help. But Mom and the new twins were separated from Savannah, the Ures’ two- year-old daughter. She was with Mavis’s dad, who was stuck in traffic gridlock a few hours behind them on Highway 63. Finally arriving at Firebag at 1 a.m., Mavis, her mother, and the newborns were put on the first medical evacuation flight to Edmonton, where they were transferred to the maternity ward at Grey Nuns Hospital. “I remember being so relieved to be in a bed again and I looked at the clock — it was 8:30 a.m.,” says Mavis. Meanwhile, Curtis had reunited with Savannah and his father-in-law in the early morning hours. He and Savannah were for- tunate to quickly catch a flight out and join the rest of the family in Edmonton. Mavis and Curtis are grateful for the amazing support they received from Suncor — where they both work — and the hospital staff at Northern Lights and Grey Nuns. “I will always remember the sense of com- munity as everyone pulled together to get evacuees out safely,” says Curtis.
“We don’t want to just walk away from it.” RACHEL DRAPEAU, P.ENG.
HOME AGAIN Rachel Drapeau, P.Eng., with husband Patrick and baby Ashton, returned to their street in Beacon Hill in late October. Their block was untouched by flames — but more than 400 homes in the neighbourhood were destroyed. -photo courtesy Rachel Drapeau, P.Eng.
trying to meet up with her husband, Patrick. They both work north of Fort McMurray — she at Syncrude’s Mildred Lake plant and Patrick at Canadian Natural Resources’ Horizon site — and had caught rides back into the city when they
A WALL OF SMOKE AND A WARM WELCOME Around the same time Mavis and twins were getting ready to evacuate the hospital, Rachel Drapeau, P.Eng., was
46 | PEG WINTER 2016
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