Fair officials watch weather, but go on with the show
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on October 1, 2015 1:46 PM
Full Size
News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
Rose Massey shaves the whiskers of her miniature horse Queen, 3, after arriving at the Wayne County Fairgrounds on Wednesday afternoon. Rose and her husband, Alton, have been bringing horses to the fair for about 25 years.
DUDLEY -- Queen, a 3-year-old American mini horse, is getting her beard shaved.
She is a lady, after all.
Her owner, Rose Massey, uses a manual horse shaver to scrape off the loose hairs around Queen's chin, nose, mouth and face.
Queen was being prepared by Mrs. Massey Wednesday night for the 67th Annual Wayne Regional Agricultural Fair, which begins today at 4 p.m.
Mrs. Massey's 16-year-old niece will choose between Queen and another mini horse, Spring -- Queen's 3-year-old sister -- to show during the open mares class of next Thursday's horse show on Oct. 8.
Even though Wayne County is bracing for heavy rains and weather that could turn sour in a second, Mrs. Massey, who has participated in the fair for 25 years, is planning on keeping Queen and Spring in the livestock exhibit building all 10 days of the fair.
The weather forecast for the weekend does not worry her, and the miniature horses have three days worth of water and hay to feed on while they stay in their pens at the fair.
"I've left animals here (in the building) in very bad weather before," Mrs. Massey said. "I'll have somebody coming in and looking in on her (Queen) to make sure she's OK. I've left them here in tornados and hurricanes before and they've been perfectly fine."
And this is not by accident.
Fair officials have plans to take care of every possible contingency that could put fair-goers and livestock in harm's way.
There are two buildings where flooding could become a concern if Hurricane Joaquin were to make landfall and turn toward Wayne County, or if heavy rains bear down on the county.
One of those is the main exhibit building, where organizations such as the Beekeepers of the Neuse are located, while the other is the commercial exhibit building, which is a large white canvas hoop building where vendors show and sell goods to fair attendees.
Should flooding become an issue with heavy rains, sandbags are at the ready to be put in front of the doors and access point of the buildings to stop water from flowing in.
"We are planning on moving forward with the fair (as it is scheduled)," fair manager Eddie Pitzer said. "We can't predict the weather, so we'll be watching the weather forecast and working closely with emergency services to make sure everybody attending the fair is safe."
Should high winds, heavy rains and other inclement weather become a concern, the fair will be shut down immediately to keep people safe, Pitzer said.
But, barring these conditions, the fair will go on even if it is raining.
"Fairs are one of those things that are planned years in advance, so we do everything we can to prevent having to cancel or reschedule events," Pitzer said.
All 10 days of the fair have events scheduled in specific time slots, spanning the entirety of the day. If an event has to be canceled and rescheduled, it would be difficult.
When it comes to events such as bull riding and carnival rides, the decision to call those off or stop carnival ride operations is left up to the promoters, not the fair organizers and directors, Pitzer said.
Livestock shows and other exhibitions happen in enclosed shelters, so rain would not be likely to adversely affect those events.
"If the participants are here for a livestock show and they want a show, that show will happen," Pitzer said.
There is an emergency response plan in place, created by fair organizers and emergency services, for any type of situation that should arise -- be it safety concerns or weather concerns.
"Our main concern is always the safety of the people attending the fair," Pitzer said. "We don't want anything to happen that would ever affect the safety of people at the fair."
In the event of power outages caused by bad weather, the fairgrounds would not be in complete darkness, Pitzer said. All carnival rides operate on their own generators.
Should the weather cause power outages or other utility issues prior to the fair opening each day at 4 p.m., the fair would not open on that day, Pitzer said, although he does not believe that will be a concern.
The National Weather Service forecast is calling for rain showers on Thursday and a 100 percent chance of rain Friday through Saturday.
Showers are expected Saturday night with a chance of showers on Sunday and Sunday night as well.
If it is only rain that is coming down these days, and the rain is not accompanied by any other inclement conditions, the fair will go on as scheduled, Pitzer said.