Supplies are arriving by the truckload at evacuation centres that house thousands of Fort McMurray evacuees and it’s welcome news because no one knows when they’ll be able to go back home.

In Lac La Biche, hundreds of evacuees are staying in the community in shelters while thousands of others are staying elsewhere throughout the region.

However, they can all go to the main donation centre to pick up food and other essential supplies.

A short distance away, at a shed and warehouse, county crews and volunteers work in shifts to sort the donations 24 hours a day.

Among the items are toys, hygiene products, underwear, socks, food and a whole lot of bottled water.

The items are coming fast too, with volunteers from Kindersley, Saskatchewan, bringing in three trailers’ worth of goods recently, items that were collected in just two days’ time.

“Soap, toiletries, water, food, pillows, blankets, dog food, cat food, kind of the whole works. Everyone just banded together to put what they could in,” said volunteer Cory McKee.

Evacuees are also able to pick up any clothes they need from the evacuation centre. Last week, only one of the gymnasiums was being used to store donated clothing, but officials have since opened another because of the sheer volume of items they were receiving.

All of the clothing is organized by gender, age and size so the evacuees can easily look through and find what they need. Organizers do say there is a need for men's work boots, sizes 10 and larger.

The distribution area, which is attached to the arena where many of the evacuees are being housed, also has a spot for food and toys.

Medical services and insurance services, which offer to help get evacuees started on their claims and help them navigate the claims process, are also at hand.

All of the services are being offered free of charge.

School classes, which were suspended in Lac La Biche’s schools last week, resumed on Monday.

There may also be some new students, because evacuees are being advised that if they want to put their kids into classes, they should just show up at a local school to register.

More information about the classes for evacuees can be found on the Alberta Education website.