Calgarians can set foot in the world of disaster response this weekend at the Samaritans Purse open house.
The event is being held at the organization’s newly-built warehouse in the northeast and features a tornado simulator, emergency field hospital, emergency shelter and community water system, which people can tour.
Running Saturday, June 8 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Samaritans Purse will showcase how their relief efforts are deployed throughout Canada and other countries in need.
Frank King, the news media relations manager for Samaritans Purse, said the main purpose of the 115,000-square-foot warehouse is for stockpiling supplies that will be ready at any moment.
“If there’s a gigantic tsunami in Japan again or an earthquake in Nepal, something like that, we’re going able to get as much stuff as possible out there as fast as possible,” King said.
“Because people are going to need help immediately and we want to be there to give them that help.”
Samaritan’s Purse hopes to show its capabilities in responding to tornadoes, wildfires, floods and earthquakes at this weekend’s event.
Each exhibit will have guides and team members to explain how each response centre runs, including members who have been sent out to work in field hospitals.
“They can really give a first-hand sort of recounting of what that experience has been for us to be on the ground and offer help to people when they’re desperately suffering,” King said.
The team is also prepared for the range of Alberta wildfires currently affecting the north, communicating with the provincial government if needed.
WATCH (May 30): Ian Stokes joins Global News Calgary to discuss the relief work being done in Mozambique following a devastating cyclone.
Relief efforts are generally not sent out until the fires are out, King said, which happened in the case of the Fort McMurray fire in 2016.
“The blessing right now is, not many homes have been affected by the wildfires in northern Alberta,” King said.
Once they’re called into the area, teams sift through the remainder of the homes in hopes of finding heirlooms or keepsakes for families that have lost their homes.
“For folks that have lost so much, what a blessing it is when they find, say, a chess set they really valued that survived the flames or a piece of porcelain or something like that that has a treasured emotional value for them,” King said.
Alongside the educational aspect of learning how the organization works, King hopes the weekend will build more partnerships.
“We’re really hoping they’re going to say, ‘Wow, this organization is doing really cool stuff and maybe we should find a way to partner with them,’ because the more partners we have supporting us, the more of this kind of work we can do in a larger scale.”
The Samaritans Purse warehouse is located at 20 Hopewell Way N.E.
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