Loni Klettl was tired when she returned to Hinton, Alta., Friday afternoon, as the adrenaline wore off and reality set in.
She was among the wildfire evacuees allowed back into Jasper, Alta., to view the townsite after a monster wildfire destroyed one-third of the town more than three weeks ago.
Klettle, a former Olympic alpine skier, mentally prepared herself by pretending the journey was a ski race. In town, she biked through every accessible area, concentrating on just pushing her pedals.
“It felt like I was on another planet,” she told CBC News.
“It just didn’t feel real at all.”
Thousands of people were forced out of Jasper National Park late on July 22, including the roughly 5,000 residents of the historic townsite, as a group of threatening wildfires instigated an evacuation order.
In less than 48 hours, flames soaring more than 100 metres reached the town, ultimately destroying 358 of its 1,113 total structures.
West Jasper suffered the most destruction, nearly losing entire neighbourhoods and blocks. Some parts are akin to a wasteland, with torched trees standing lifeless and burned vehicle skeletons sitting on the road. Cement foundations are reminders that homes once stood on certain plots of land.
The evacuation notice for the town of Jasper — not the national park — lifted Saturday, after the fire was labelled as being held.
Klettl stopped by her property. The house she lived in for about six months was destroyed, she said.
While cruising, she found herself getting disoriented because landmarks she relied on for more than 60 years were no more. In some places, she could see light or the mountains where she couldn’t before.
“I didn’t even know what street I was on,” she said.
Crews have been cleaning up debris, fencing off destroyed areas and restoring utilities over the past couple of weeks, preparing for re-entry.
The Canadian Red Cross has set up a support centre in Jasper to help link people to various services, including insurance providers and mental health support. On Friday, Red Cross personnel there also provided buckets to residents filled with things like blankets and clean-up kits, containing items such as mops, detergent and N95 masks.
“They are a real psychological reminder that we’re now moving from a period of evacuation into the process of re-entry and clean up, and moving on into the next phase of the journey,” said Melanie Soler, vice-president of emergency management for Canadian Red Cross, while standing beside the highway in the rain.
At the centre, Soler watched residents reunite and hug each other, she said.
Jasper resident Stephen Nelson felt mixed emotions from the townspeople Friday, as they try to move forward.
Nelson is among the people who lost their homes. He had signed a lease at Pine Grove Manor, a local seniors’ apartment building, less than two weeks before the evacuation and lost almost everything he owned when the complex burned down, he said.
“It wasn’t so much as losing a home,” Nelson said while on CBC’s Power and Politics, noting he hadn’t formed a connection to the residence yet.
“There are certainly things that I should have brought with me, and for the rest of my life, I will tell myself I should have brought them with me — and I didn’t. That’s the hard part.”
Housing remains an unanswered question for many, officials noted Friday. Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver encouraged Jasper residents to fill out the town’s housing needs assessment survey, to help government officials understand their respective needs.
“Even if your house is in perfect condition and everything’s working, we need to know if maybe you have a room, or part of your house, that could be someone else’s temporary residence,” McIver said during a virtual news conference.
“If you don’t have that, we need to know that too, so we can make the best plans possible.”
The unified command team is looking at short-, medium- and long-term temporary housing options, McIver said, stressing that people who need shelter will have a place to go.
In the meantime, the minister encouraged residents to be “as self-sufficient as possible.”
Despite the emotions of the day, Klettl recalled Jasper as “a buzzing beehive.” People were inspecting their properties, or huddling together at the Red Cross support centre, while crews were still working away in town.
Much of the town still feels like home, but a significant part doesn’t yet, she said. Some of the popular day-use areas outside of town were “nuked.”
Still, Klettl would encourage visitors to travel to the town when they are allowed.
“Just because we’re burnt, doesn’t mean we’re not still Jasper town and Jasper National Park,” Klettl said. “We’re still there — it’s just in a different form, that’s all.”