93 stories of the Fort McMurray evacuation in new book
Kyle Muzyka | CBC News | Posted: December 5, 2016 11:00 PM | Last Updated: December 6, 2016
Producing book helped Ashley Tobin deal with newly-found anxiety
Ashley Tobin had never felt any sort of anxiety before the Fort McMurray fire, but shortly after the fire forced 88,000 people out of their homes, she felt different.
She lost 15 pounds in four days.
To deal with the anxiety, Tobin immediately began journaling. That's what led to her new book, The 88,000 Project, which launched Monday.
Her story is unique, like the other 92 in the book.
Tobin was aware of the potential danger the fire posed, but on May 3 she was not concerned about it.
Orange light
She arrived home around noon that day and she put her two kids down for their naps. She sat down to have some lunch when she opened her blinds and saw an orange light peeking through.
"[I saw] the hugest plume of black smoke with orange," she said. "It was right then when we knew something was up."
Still, Tobin packed light, thinking she'd only be gone a few days. It wasn't until she looked down her street that she second-guessed herself. "It was the eeriest feeling to look down and see your entire street packing," she said.
She packed more clothes and items and prepared to leave her home for potentially the last time.
She and her family tried escaping south with no luck. They tried leaving north, but couldn't. They were trapped.
"That's what I imagine a death sentence feels like," she said. "I thought we were going to be one of the numbers that didn't make it."
Tobin and her family had already wasted two hours worth of gas trying to escape the city and, with reports of the nearest available gas in Lac La Biche almost 300 kilometres away, she knew they didn't have much leeway.
"We knew that whatever decision we made, we had to make it once," she said.
Tobin's husband tweeted the municipality at 3 a.m. to ask whether there was a way out. Within minutes the municipality responded, saying the south exit was open. They packed everything up and left for Lac la Biche.
They arrived with 30 kilometres worth of gas to spare.
93 perspectives
Tobin wrote her story down and once she did, she felt better about her anxiety. She said that is what led to the book. She asked for submissions throughout the month of October, and received 92 other stories.
"They're all so different in their own perspective," she said of the stories. "You kind of put yourself in everybody's shoes when you're reading these stories."
The stories are written anonymously to help place the reader in the writers' shoes, some of whom lost their homes while others, like Tobin, did not.
Tobin said the other stories also helped her anxiety by helping put things in perspective.
"I think people would have paid me to have my evacuation compared to what other people had to go through," she said.
"It's made me realize that I wasn't alone that day."