Quote (russian @ May 6 2016 02:25pm)
The town will be rebuilt eventually, it's an oil hub. When oil prices were high you could make very good money there doing just about anything. But how long that will take is hard to say, especially with the cheap oil basically shutting down oilsand production.
Firefighters did save some critical infrastructure, like the airport and the water treatment plant, but a lot of residential districts got at least partially destroyed. Even for those people who didn't lose their homes, I don't know if they'll be able to just move back. They may have no water, power, or gas. They may have nowhere to buy food from, fill up the car from, nowhere to work, nothing to do. I wouldn't be surprised if people just start abandoning homes.
In fact, for those people who didn't lose their house it may end up being even worse. They may have to leave Fort Mac anyway, but without any insurance money. In 2014 the average price of a house there was $800,000. Imagine taking a mortgage out for over half a million bucks, and having to just board up your house and leave 2 years later, with no payout, no job, but still the same $2000+ / month mortgage payments on top of whatever you are gonna pay to rent a new place somewhere else. The fuck do you do at that point, besides declare bankruptcy? These guys are in for some rough times, that's for sure.
Ok wow no.
production in oil sands will slow down or even halt in places now with the fire but through 2016 production has not shut down. It was down a bit though 2015 but steady or slight increase in 2016.
New expansion and construction yes that has slowed dramatically but not to a dead stop either.
1600 homes where lost , not the whole city. It'll take time maybe months to return essential services but people are not gonna abandon their homes
Ft Mac will be rebuilt. ( even if some treehuggers might wish it otherwise)
This post was edited by remco6 on May 6 2016 03:59pm