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Grey literature review reveals significant community-level impacts of 2023 wildfire evacuations in Northwest Territories, highlighting the need for improved emergency preparedness.
The Northwest Territories (NWT) experienced an unprecedented wildfire season in the summer of 2023, triggering a record number of evacuation orders across the territory. This review aims to improve understandings of the community-level impacts of the 2023 wildfire evacuations in the NWT, addressing a gap in research by analysing the impacts of the evacuations and offering insights to inform future emergency preparedness and targeted investigations. Using a grey literature review methodology, 96 sources – including news articles, community reports, and government reports were analysed to assess evacuation impacts. Through inductive thematic analysis, nine key themes emerged: mental health; equity-deserving populations; local businesses and economy; evacuee financial struggle; supply chains; healthcare; education; recreation and entertainment; and cross-cutting. While some sources reported that evacuation-related challenges stemmed directly from wildfire threats, many evacuee experiences were intensified by existing gaps in emergency response, communication breakdowns, and inadequate supports for equity-deserving groups. Findings suggest that the impacts of the 2023 NWT wildfire evacuations exacerbated pre-existing vulnerabilities, were marked by communication failures, and had cascading, interconnected, and long-term consequences. This review highlights the far-reaching consequences of wildfire evacuations in the NWT in 2023 and underscores the need for community-led and equity-oriented emergency planning that is responsive to the specific needs of Northern populations.
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Young et al. (2025) studied this question.
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