Fort McMurray fire continues to spread

“Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says residents of Fort McMurray will not be returning home for some time as fires continue to burn within the city for a third day, the flames now covering an area of 850 square kilometres, about the size of Calgary.

The wildfire in Fort McMurray could be the costliest disaster in Canadian history as estimates for insured damages run as high as $9-billion. Thousands of homes and businesses in Alberta’s fifth largest population centre have been destroyed,” wrote Justin Giovannetti and Carrie Tait for The Globe and Mail on Thursday May 5, 2016.

Giovannetti and Tait continued, “Fire officials expect the inferno to continue growing for days as strong winds push flames into the dry forests surrounding the capital of Canada’s oil sands. On Thursday, the wildfires began began moving south, threatening the evacuation shelters where many local residents had been waiting to return home.

The province also began an airlift of the nearly 25,000 residents who are still trapped north of the city.

Officials chose to use military and civilian transport planes to move the residents to Edmonton and Calgary after ruling out a plan to run a convoy of the evacuees through Fort McMurray because of fire and smoke. Highway 63, which runs through Fort McMurray, is the only way out.

Ms. Notley did not provide a timeline for residents to go back, but said it would be measured in weeks or months, not days.”

 

Read the full article here.

Raymond Matt, CFP, CLU, TEP, CHS

 

 

Search continues for Prince’s will

Chaska, Minnesota (CNN) –  A court hearing to determine the fate of Prince’s estate — including the contents of a secretive vault the musician left behind at Paisley Park — concluded Monday with a special administrator appointed but no will discovered.

While a search for the late pop icon’s will continues, the court appointed St. Paul-based Bremer Trust as special administrator during the proceeding in Chaska, Minnesota, outside Minneapolis,” wrote Joshua Berlinger, Sara Sidner, and Eliott C. McLaughlin for CNN.
 
Berlinger, Sidner, and McLaughlin continued, “The court determined that all possible heirs have been reached and have been provided the opportunity to be included in the petition filed by Prince’s sister, Tyka Nelson, said First Judicial District Judge Kevin Eide.
 
What resides in the vault at Paisley Park is anyone’s guess, but Prince’s half-brother, Alfred Jackson, told CNN that if it contains music, he wants the world to hear it.
 
That, of course, may not be up to him, as all but one of Prince’s living siblings and half-siblings signed off on Bremer Trust as administrator. Half-brother John Nelson was the only holdout, but that doesn’t mean he opposes the move — only that he didn’t actually sign it.
 
On Monday morning, Prince’s family arrived at a probate hearing to determine what happens to everything that the music icon left behind. Among those attending the hearing were sister Tyka Nelson and half-siblings Jackson, Sharon Nelson, Norrine Nelson and Omarr Baker.”
 
 

Read the full article here.

Raymond Matt, CFP, CLU, TEP, CHS

 
 

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