Fort McMurray's Salvation Army 'limping along' after flood damage and revenue loss

The Salvation Army of Fort McMurrayhas hit hard times as it deals with a higher volume of patrons, a damaged building and loss of revenue.

When Fort McMurray flooded in April, the Salvation Army's downtown shelter and thrift store filled with water.

Sewage and water backed up into the building's basement, rendering it unusable for nine weeks and destroying thousands of dollars worth of equipment, food and clothing.

Theorganization set up a temporary location for nine weeks at its church right after the flood.

Programming has now returned to the downtown building, without using the basement, said executive director Edna Olsen-Moman.

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Typically the Salvation Army's mat program, an overnight wet shelter, is run out of the basement, but the area is still being remediated.

The mat program has been moved to the first floor, which is usually home to the thrift store.

The storeis closed because all the inventory was destroyed in the flood and the space needs to be used to house people.

"We are limping along," Olsen-Momansaid.She estimates the organization has lost about $550,000 from the store being closed over the last five months.

The store is expected to stay closed for another 12 weeks while the basement is fixed.

As well, Olsen-Moman estimates a 20 per cent increase in program use because of COVID-19 and the flood.

"We're doing absolutely everything that we can," she said.

Community members have offered donations, businesses have sent money and the Salvation Army is applying for more grants.

"I can't promise that come the end of the year, that our budget won't be in a deficit."

Olsen-Moman said the budget is still being adjusted as needed. That included cutting part of the bagged lunch program.

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Typically the program would let anyone come in and grab a free paper bag lunch, but now that service won't be available for the general public. Onlypeople staying at the shelter can participate.

The organization had to cancel three fundraising events this year.

The annual kettle campaign is an uncertainty at this time.

Kettles lost in April floods

"We lost every one of our kettles in the flooding,"Olsen-Moman said.

The kettles were in the Salvation Army's storage facility in Taiga Nova.

That also flooded, destroying all the stored materials for the thrift shop.

Olsen-Moman saidthe Salvation Army can't accept clothing donations right now because there is nowhere to store the items.

She's hoping someone will volunteer some kind of storage space soon.

In the meantime, the Salvation Army is hoping for monetary donations to help keep programs running.

"We want to make sure the Salvation is there to give hope today and to help people out," Olsen-Moman said.

"That's really, really what we're striving to do and if that means we need to tighten our belts a little bit, we'll do that."