Storm forced evacuation of temporary homeless shelter in Vancouver

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Around 150 people living in a temporary homeless shelter in Downtown Vancouver were forced to relocate yesterday due to flooding.

Penny Ballem with the City of Vancouver says water has overwhelmed the electrical system inside the former Quality Inn at Howe and Drake.

“We immediately mobilized our facilities people, our emergency response and our fire chief, who went down and ascertained that it really wasn’t safe for the building to be occupied. So we had to evacuate it in a few hours and set up shelter capacity in three different places in the city,” she tells us.

“These events are very traumatic for these kind of folks… We are very anxious to get them back in as quickly as possible, as soon as it’s safe. Last night, I was told it would be probably a couple of days,” notes Ballem.

She adds staff and volunteers are working as fast as they can to reopen the facility.

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