ESi911

Orlando, FL – Officials from the Florida Division of Emergency Management presented the first State Emergency Management Awards on October 19, 2009 at the State Logistics Response Center in Orlando.

Recipients were awarded for their innovative practices and achievements in making their communities safer, stronger, and better prepared to manage emergency or disaster situations. 

The award recipients included Wayne Sallade, Director of Charlotte County Emergency Management, who was inducted into the Florida Emergency Management Hall of Fame, and Soheila Ajabshir, Systems Manager with the Miami-Dade County Department of Emergency Management, who received the Emergency Management Innovator of the Year Award.

As the Director of Charlotte County Emergency Management for 23 years, Mr. Sallade was cited for his leadership with the Florida Emergency Preparedness Association, where he served as VP, his 12 years of service as Governor of Area 6, and his role in the Florida Governor’s Hurricane Conference on both the planning and site selection committees.

Mr. Sallade became the focus of international media attention in August, 2004, when he headed the response to Hurricane Charley which hit his county with sustained winds of over 150 mph.  Over 11,000 homes were destroyed in Charlotte County and four residents lost their lives.

“Few people realize that the damage potential of a 150 mile per hour storm is actually about a thousand times greater than a 100 mile per hour storm because buildings can’t hold up and start to collapse,” Mr. Sallade told ESi.  “The roof of our EOC was torn off early in the day and we managed our response from the backup control center at Charlotte Airport.”

Today, the Charlotte County EOC is in a state of the art $11.5 million dollar, 31,000 square foot building that has a 200 mph wind rating and includes  a back up 911 center, a press center, and a television studio.

“We’ve also implemented WebEOC and WebEOC Mapper Professional as our crisis information management system, and continue to train new users and demonstrate its capabilities to other emergency managers in Region 6,” Mr. Sallade said.

Soheila Ajabshir, recognized as Emergency Management Innovator of the Year, has 21 years of experience serving both County and Municipal governments in South Florida.  During her 15 years with Miami-Dade County she has worked with the Parks and Recreation Department as a Senior Planner, with the Enterprise Technology Services Department as a Systems Analyst/Programmer, and has spent the last 7 years with the Department of Emergency Management as its Systems Manager - GIS Coordinator.  

Mrs. Ajabshir has used her GIS expertise to develop numerous special projects, including an Emergency Evacuation Assistance Database, a web-based application used to maintain a registry of county residents with medical conditions that require assistance, including geocoding of their locations, and a Residential Healthcare Database, used to manage a registry of medical facilities that are geocoded so their locations can be easily identified and mapped.