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The hospital, Bastion Place, and Pioneer Lodge evacuate voluntarily

Three ambulance attendants loading a person on a stretcher into an ambulance. Emergency worker in orange outfit with reflective stripes looks on.

Feature photo:
Shuswap Lake General Hospital evacuating. By midnight the hospital was empty of patients.

Photo credit:
James Murray, Salmon Arm Observer, c. 1998

Wednesday, August 5th 250 patients from the Shuswap Lake General Hospital, Pioneer Lodge, and Bastion Place were evacuated. Some went by bus, others went by ambulance.

An attendant unloads a person in awheelchair from a bus. Two other women walk towards a building's entrance. A person in a uniform surveys the scene.

Residents return to Salmon Arm’s Bastion Place.

Patients were sent to neighbouring communities: Enderby, Armstrong, Vernon, and Kamloops. Medical care was back to normal by August 19th.

 

Two workers and a uniformed person assist a man in a wheelchair. Others are walking to and from the front of the bus. Two ambulances in background.

It was a large scale operation and unsettling for the patients. Welcome home!