As of 8:00 p.m. yesterday (Sunday), the Vernon ESS Reception Centre has registered approximately 840 evacuees, most of whom have come from the Central Okanagan region.
A number of community members reached out to ask how they can volunteer with ESS and be part of this current response. At this time, there is no call for new volunteers. A strong pool of trained ESS volunteers have been ready and willing to assist as needed over the last several days.
If people in the community are still interested, they're encouraged to visit the City of Vernon website and take a look at the ESS program information. In order to work in the Reception Centre, they will need to fill out a volunteer application. Those applications would then need to be processed and then applicants would need to receive some training and going through an onboarding process.
As a high volume of evacuees are being processed right now, no new applications are being processed right now, but discussions about if or when new applicants may be needed.
If someone has applied to volunteer but they haven’t heard back yet, they're requested to stay patient and understanding.