The only explanation that comes to mind for the shameful lack of concern displayed by CTV and Global involves simple demographics. The fires were burning in the little known and blatantly unimportant eastern shore region of the HALIFAX Regional Municipality - Porters Lake, Lake Echo, Mineville (not Minefield) and Lawrencetown (beach not Valley). The Halifax Peninsula certainly wasn't threatened. Dartmouth wasn't threatened and especially Bedford wasn't threatened. So how important could it be, right? On the other hand, all those huge plumes of smoke on the horizon were really cool and apparently extremely photogenic.

Five thousand displaced residents of the HALIFAX Regional Municipality were forced to leave our homes and our lives and go.....where? Some went to shelters. Some were fortunate enough to stay with friends and family. Others lived in their cars. We were scattered in all directions except east but we all had one thing in common - we were desperate for information. Ongoing and updated information. We naturally turned to our local media and what did we get? Nothing. Except for those "in depth" repeats at 6 and 11:30 PM. Most of the 5,000 evacuees despite being forced from our homes could still see the smoke on the horizon. So, because we had nothing else to do and were desperate for news we sat and watched the smoke and debated whether or not the fire appeared to be heading "this way".

Saturday morning and Day Two of the evacuation 5,000 displaced persons awoke to another beautiful sunny day. Sleep for most was sporadic and restless that is if we were able to sleep at all. First and foremost on our minds was news of the fires. Surely we would be going home today. It soon became agonizingly apparent that although news of the fires was foremost on the minds of 5,000 displaced people it certainly wasn't considered important enough for the media. CTV and Global TV were airing their usual Saturday morning programming and local radio coverage was nonexistent except for a blurb at news time. Until 12 noon. Dialing through the radio dial some of us stumbled upon News 95.7 FM who were promising continuing coverage of this disaster. Finally! Someone was offering us a desperately needed lifeline.

Say what you will about Andrew Krystal but for two days he and News 95.7 was our only lifeline and for that I and so many others will be eternally grateful. Had it not been for 95.7 countless displaced persons would have had no idea of what was happening. We would have had that smoke-filled horizon to watch as the winds picked up and fanned the flames into a fire that was double the size of the day before. We would have watched that growing and darkly ominous cloud and feared the worst...that it was directly over our own home.

We also would not have been aware of the official updates by fire and police which were specifically geared toward evacuees. In Cole Harbour Place. The first announcement we were told by 95.7 would be coming within an hour. To our astonishment we later learned that the official updates were supplied only to those evacuees inside Cole Harbour Place and these meetings were "closed-door" meaning that reporters were locked out. Only a few hundred evacuees ever received a first hand official update. The other 4,000 plus were forced to rely on second hand and abridged information. Why were these official announcements not broadcast over at least on media station? Were we less important because we weren't at an evacuation centre? We were certainly made to feel that way. While the selected few were receiving the latest official information, the rest of us were made to sit on our laurels while the meetings ended, the media were given a hand-out which had to be written into a condensed version and then not broadcast for thirty to 60 minutes after the fact.

With the exception of News 95.7 FM, I had the distinct and unsettling feeling of deja vu. I was transported back to 2003 and the aftermath of Hurricane Juan. There was no power in my area for eight days and the worst part of that was the silence of not knowing what was happening around me. That void was the result of wide-spread power outages. There is no excuse for this one.

For continuing coverage and discussion of the eastern shore fires go to novascotialive.com