2019 09 Paola Parenti

Paola Parenti, Emergency Management Program Coordinator, Emergency Management, City of Ottawa  

 

 
     


BIO - Paola is an Emergency Management Program Coordinator with the City of Ottawa, Office of Emergency Management. The programs that she is responsible for include Augmentation, Exercise and Emergency Social Services.
 
Paola has obtained certification in: 

  • Emergency Management
  • Incident Management System
  • Incident Command System
  • Exercise Program Management 

Paola has filled various functional roles in the Emergency Operations Centre and at an Incident Site, during planned and unplanned simple and complex situations.
Recent examples include: Rideau Sussex Infrastructure Failure; North American Leaders Summit; 2017 Spring Floods; 2017 Signature Events celebrating Canada’s 150th Birthday; September 2018 Tornadoes; Westboro Bus Crash; and 2019 Spring Floods.
 
Paola also volunteers with the Canadian Red Cross Disaster Management, Ottawa Branch. Her volunteer roles include being a member of the Personal Disaster Assistance Team, Emergency Response Team and Communications Team.

Presentation  Title - 2018 Ottawa Tornadoes
Synopsis - The Ottawa Tornadoes response and recovery presentation begins with a timeline of six separate tornadoes that touched down in the Ottawa-Gatineau area in September 2018. Although a tornado is on our list of top 10 vulnerabilities in Ottawa, we had not experienced one in our surrounding area in recent history … let alone six in one night! The topics that are covered throughout the presentation include the initial response, engaging stakeholders and non-governmental organizations, damage assessment, application for disaster recovery funding, volunteer management, sustaining a long-term response, recovery, and the after action review. The presentation will conclude with how the City implemented some of the lessons observed during the 2019 Spring Freshet response and recovery operations.

Key Points that an Attendee will take away from Paola's presentation:

  • Documentation needs to start at the beginning
  • Volunteer Management
  • Establishing Stakeholder Relations Liaison Officer
  • Capacity Building before a situation occurs
  • Implementing lessons observed