MONTREAL — According to a story in the Montreal Gazette, a total of 3,496 evacuees arriving on 39 flights, following the Haiti earthquake, have been housed and processed for entry into Canada at the 486-room Wyndham Montreal Airport Hotel. Parsippany, N.J.-based Wyndham Worldwide Corporation reported that the hotel has served as a transition centre for displaced and earthquake-shocked Canadians and other refugees from Haiti.
The Wyndham was chosen as the processing centre because the hotel’s layout allows for easy separation of evacuees in one part of the hotel and worried family and friends in another while still accommodating vacationers and business travellers. The hotel has offered evacuees access to basic necessities like food and clothing, counselling and other humanitarian services. More than 100 aid workers are putting in 12-hour shifts and night staff has been doubled to 30 or 40, with chambermaids cleaning rooms until midnight in case additional rooms are needed.
