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At the hospital in Nipawin, Brost said, it was all hands on deck. All services that would normally be closed on a Friday evening were open, from the cafeteria to the pharmacy, and there were a doctor and multiple nurses in every room. While the survivors were stabilized, the paramedics worked to clean out their ambulances, and then ferried the patients from the hospital to the airport to be flown to Saskatoon. The last patient was moved out at about 12:30 a.m., she said.

By 3:30 a.m., Brost’s work was finished. She went home and began, finally, to process what she’d seen. She couldn’t sleep, nor could most of her colleagues. “Your mind wouldn’t let you rest,” she said.

On Saturday, Brost and her crew were on call, though the day was quiet. They gathered together, going “over and over and over the events,” she said. They read about the passengers who had died as information started to come out in the news. They looked at photos of the players, with their playoff beards and bleach-blond hair. They were struck by the aerial shots of the crash site, she said. “Even though we were right there in the thick of it, it really took us back.”

Photo by Liam Richards / THE CANADIAN PRESS

In Humboldt, trying to come to grips with the loss, a hush has swept over the entire community. “It’s very quiet. We’re still a community in shock,” said Plag, the hotel manager.

But she said residents are finding comfort in the overwhelming support they’ve received from near and far. A group of hunters from South Carolina who have stayed at her hotel even called her up over the weekend offering to donate money.

Meanwhile, Plag is doing what she can by offering up complimentary rooms to family and friends of the victims. “Hockey’s been put to the side. And now we need to help them, right? There’s no hesitation,” she said.

Nick Shumlanski was one of the lucky ones. He was taken to Saskatoon for additional treatment, and a scan revealed some broken bones, but he was released at 6 a.m. Saturday. Doctors said he would be able to play hockey again. “He’s actually a miracle,” his father remembers a doctor saying.

Regina Leader-Post, Saskatoon StarPhoenix and National Post