Meet The Unsung Heroes Of Wellington’s
Emergency Operations Team
By Callie Sharkey
When storms like Hurricane Dorian are on the horizon, the community prepares for the worst and hopes for the best. But preparedness is more than having bottles of water and canned food on hand. Wellington’s Emergency Operations Team of Eric Juckett, Bruce Wagner, Shannon LaRocque, Ed De La Vega and Mike O’Dell — led by Director of Emergency Management & Public Safety Nicole Coates — takes the concept of preparation far beyond the expected. “Emergency Management is made up of all employees who work for the village. All public employees may be called upon to work during an emergency, such as a natural disaster,” Coates said. “The village has implemented the use of FEMA’s Incident Command Structure and applied it to all large-scale events.
Employees train year-round on FEMA’s process in the event we needed to respond to an emergency.” While the entire village is ready to help, there are key personnel who assist in the coordination of resources, response and recovery efforts during a disaster of any kind.
“We all wear multiple hats and are ready to serve when called upon,” Coates said. “My blue-sky role in the Parks & Recreation Department back in 2001 was as the community projects manager, in which I would coordinate and serve as the incident commander for large-scale community events such as the Fall Festival and the Fourth of July.” As Coates rose over time to become community services director, she continuously found herself working and training in the field of emergency preparedness and response. “It was during the hurricanes in 2004 that I had my first experience working in the village’s Emergency Operations
(L-R) (Seated) Bruce Wagner, Terry Narrow and Bill Conerly, and (standing) Dennis Flaherty, Ed Kerla and Jesse Wright; Eric Juckett, Ed De La Vega, Tom Lundeen and Nicole Coates; Michael O’Dell, Bruce Wagner and Shannon LaRocque; and Milena Meehan, Drew Robinson, Corey Robinson, Shannon LaRocque and Laurie Hand.
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november 2019 | wellington the magazine