Mines Extend Helping Hand To Stranded Northerners

Mines Extend Helping Hand To Stranded Northerners

Friday, July 29, 2005 at 15:14

An Athabasca chief is extending his gratitude to staff at a couple of mine sites for helping out some of his band members.

Fond du Lac chief Allan Adam says 20 band members have been stranded at Courtney Lake since Sunday because of the washouts along Highway 905.

He says until yesterday, they had been very short on food and, in his words, were “living off pop and chips”.

However, Adam says caterers at McClean Lake and Rabbit Lake responded right away to his plea for help.

He says they managed to get sandwiches, hot dogs and other food to the stranded people yesterday — even though the mines are dealing with a food shortage themselves.

Meanwhile, it’s still not clear when the highway will be re-opened.

Highways officials had hoped to see it partially re-opened by this evening, but now say it will be tomorrow at the earliest because of the extent of the washouts.