Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. (LASD) – Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station will be hosting a disaster preparedness event on July 20 at La Cañada High School from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The goal of the event is to educate the public on how to prepare for a large-scale disaster.

From 6 p.m. to 7 pm. CV Sheriff’s representatives will have displays from all station teams. Opening remarks are scheduled to be made by LASD Sheriff Robert Luna.

“At 7 p.m. we are having several guest speakers including Mike Leum and other members of Montrose Search and Rescue (MSAR),” said Sgt. John Gilbert.

Leum was among the MSAR team who went to Turkey to help in the rescue and recovery efforts after the February 2023 earthquake. They will be sharing stories of what they saw and what people went through after the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake.

There will also be displays and speakers from the LASD Emergency Operations Bureau on what emergency responders will do if and when such an earthquake hits LA County.

Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) coordinator Paul Dutton will speak on preparedness including a short question and answer period.

The Disaster Communication Service, uniformed deputies and members of the LASD Explorer program will also be on hand. Visitors will also be able to visit the CV Station mobile command post.

Gilbert said the inspiration for the event came from Dutton who had invited MSAR members who responded to the Turkey earthquake to speak to his CERT members.

“I thought that was a good idea and maybe we should do it on a larger format, to reach out to the public and invite the sheriff to join,” Gilbert said.

He added this event is to drive home the point that “if we think what happened to Turkey, that level of humanitarian crisis, can’t happen here – well it can.”

The event will be free to the public to attend. It will also be streamed online on LASD social media platforms.

La Cañada High School is located at 4463 Oak Grove Drive in La Cañada Flintridge.