YMMhelp.com streamlines outpouring of support for Fort McMurray fire evacuees

A new website is working hard to make sure your offer to help the people of Fort McMurray doesn't fall on deaf ears.

YMMhelp.com is gathering pertinent details from those who can assist, and those who need assistance, and funneling it into a searchable database.

"So if the Red Cross needs to know who in some small town can look after pets, we can run a search on that and get them that information," said Emma May, who co-ordinated the effort to get the website up and running quickly this week.

• Fort McMurray fire: How to help or get help in Calgary
• Fort McMurray fire: Information for evacuees and how to help

May said the website was born out of necessity because the Facebook page she launched with the same goal — to help those affected by the northern Alberta wildfires — worked a tad too well.

"We were overwhelmed. I think we are now at over a million impressions... It's massive. We have 26,000 likes or something."

She and her team of 15 to 20 volunteers could not respond to all the offers to help.

However, the website allows them to efficiently streamline and organize all the information coming in.

May said it's encrypted and secure because it was built by a team of volunteers from the I.T. department of Canadian Natural Resources.

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