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Last Update 12/23/07 |
December 4, 2007 -- Ben Nelson at the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) Emergency Operations Center (EOC) On Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 the North Florida AMS held a special December meeting at the Florida Emergency Operations Center. Operations Officer Jim Roberts addressed the chapter with a safety briefing and briefly discussed the various types of emergencies the EOC deals with including: severe weather, wildfires, and bio terrorism. Following Jim Roberts, Charlie Woodrum hosted the final round of Weather Jeopardy. Richie Scwerdt and Marv Fortune (330 points) were finalists against Jason Adams and Lorenza Cooper (270 points). The winners received one point each toward the Member of the Year Award. Kevin McKee then announced the basketball tailgates for Duke on January 16th and N.C. State on February 3rd. The AMS calendars were sold at the meeting for $12 a piece. All 57 have been sold with $218.13 earned toward the chapter. The account balance is $2,820.56 after the deposit from the calendars. Charlie then introduced Ben Nelson as this month’s speaker. Ben moved to the sunshine state to begin attending Florida State University in August 1995. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Meteorology in 1999, he began an internship with the State Meteorologist’s office at the Florida Division of Emergency Management. He served as an assistant meteorologist through June 2004. Ben was promoted to the State Meteorologist position in July 2004, just weeks before Hurricane Charley devastated portions of southwest and central Florida. He was deployed to Charlotte County two days after Charley’s landfall and gained valuable field experience. Two weeks later, Ben was recalled to the State EOC as Frances moved into the western Atlantic Ocean. Mr. Nelson was recognized for his work during the 2004 hurricane season in the Governor’s State of the State Address to the Legislature on March 8, 2005. Eight hurricanes impacted Florida in less than 15 months’ time during Mr. Nelson’s first two hurricane seasons as the State Meteorologist. The State Meteorologist supervises the State Meteorological Support Unit at the Florida Division of Emergency Management in Tallahassee. This unit focuses on operational meteorology and acts as a liaison between Florida’s National Weather Service offices, the National Hurricane Center, Florida’s Water Management Districts and the State Emergency Response Team. Ben Nelson discussed the State Emergency Response Team’s (SERT) involvement in Katrina, the disaster assistance process, and deploying special response teams to local governments. From June through November the EOC is focused on hurricanes and other natural disasters. December and January focus on Hazardous Weather Awareness Week (HWAW) while February through May is mainly about training and wildfire season. This year HWAW will be February 4-8. More information can be found at http://www.floridadisaster.org. For more information: Charlie Woodrum, northflams@gmail.com. Report submitted by Liane Claytor, Secretary. |
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