Area officials and citizens received information Thursday ondisaster preparedness and management training.

The Mississippi Department of Health’s Office of HealthDisparity hosted the course at State Bank. The course attractedapproximately 25-30 participants.

Federal Emergency Management Agency course instructor CharlesWard cited lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina in discussingdisaster preparedness.

“We found out that natural disasters can affect us as greatly asterrorists attacks,” said Ward. “We learned a lot of things we needto do differently.”

Ward expressed how important preparation is because there wouldbe another natural disaster in the United States this year. Thenatural disasters Ward emphasized the need to prepare for arefloods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, fires, transportationincidents, epidemics, mass gatherings, explosive devices, chemicalweapons, industrial hazmat and terrorism.

First responders, faith-based organizations, community-basedorganizations and local officials attended the session. Eachattendee received a useful packet of information such as the levelsof tornadoes or hurricanes and the effects of each, what to have ina survival tool kit.