WS Chronicle

Photo by Timothy Ramsey

BY TIMOTHY RAMSEY 

THE CHRONICLE

Natural disasters and household emergencies can happen at any moment. Many homes are not prepared for a sudden emergency or able to leave the home at a moment’s notice if necessary.  Seeing a need to inform the community, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Clemmons held an emergency preparedness fair Saturday, Sept. 10.

The fair was set up with various booths that showed individuals different ways of preparing for emergencies that might come.

The booths included ways to purify water outside of the home, things to pack in a “bugout bag,” ways to prepare pets for quick travel and non perishable foods to pack, to name a few.

The Church of Latter Day Saints holds a preparedness fair every two years.  Preparedness coordinator for the church, Larry Morris, said they just want to make people aware of how they can prepare themselves for any kind of emergency that may come up.  He wants people to have the proper items in the home in case of emergency.

A lot of people don’t know where to start, and this is where we want to teach them how to start their emergency preparedness items in their homes,” Morris said.  “When they visit each of these 16 booths we have here at the fair, they will get an idea of almost every aspect of being prepared.”

Along with showing people what to prepare, they brought in the Lewisville and Clemmons fire departments, a local Boy Scout troop, Forsyth County Sherriff’s Department and the Community Emergency Response Team (C.E.R.T).  The fire department showed how to deal with a house fire along with common household fire hazards such as extension cords. The Boy Scout troop dis-played ways to build shelters with available materials.  Sgt. Robert Burrow of the Sherrif’s Department expressed that the police are there to help and want people to know that the police are good.  He said everyone needs to be prepared in case of emergency. The emergency preparedness specialist for the Lewisville ward of the Church of Latter Day Saints, K.C. Lacoma, said he wants people to leave with ideas of how to make themselves and their families prepared for emergencies and to be aware just in case.

The church not only wants people to be prepared physically, they want them to be prepared religiously as well.  Jason Brigg, ward mission leader said, “We want the community to know that we believe in a loving Savior who wants all his children to be happy and would love to share that message with everyone.”