The road to recovery is starting to clear for businesses in Jasper, Alta., a month after some 25,000 visitors and residents were forced to flee a raging wildfire.A worker walks in a devastated neighbourhood in west Jasper on Monday. Wildfire caused evacuations and widespread damage in the national park and Jasper townsite. The road to recovery is starting to clear for businesses in Jasper, Alta., a month after some 25,000 visitors and residents were forced to flee a raging wildfire.
The route adds to the full reopening of Highway 16 earlier this week, which has ushered in teams of service workers to help rebuild the community, bringing businesses closer to reopening.SunDog restarted its shuttle route from Edmonton to Jasper on Friday as well, though for now it's just for residents and workers, said Hardy.There are signs of reopening in town, too.
Robbins is closely aware of the devastation of the fire; her home is one of only four left on her street. An earlier survey conducted by the Tourism Industry Association of Alberta gave some sense of scale, estimating daily revenue losses as high as $4.5 million a day during the peak summer months. SunDog Tours lost two staff houses in the fire along with its administrative building, just a few of the 358 structures making up about a third in town that were destroyed.
The town and the park are still working out building codes and planning issues as they look to reduce future wildfire threats, so Colbath will have to wait until those decisions are made before ramping up.