Emergency expo set for June 24 at civic center
Wharton Chamber News

In addition to informative booths, the Wharton Emergency Preparedness Expo is attracting great speakers who will explain how to prepare for a disaster and how to survive and cope when disaster actually strikes.

The expo will be from 2 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 24, at the Wharton Community Civic Center. There also will be a clown to entertain the kids and free hotdogs.

Billie Rice is a PHI Air Helicopter Medical Supervisor in Bryan/College Station who flew rescue missions in Hurricane Katrina. He is a former supervisor for Montgomery County Emergency Medical Services. He is vice chair of the Brazos Valley Regional Advisory Council for trauma care and serves on the St. Joseph Regional Health Center Perfect Care Committee-Cardiac Stroke.

David Walker earned a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1978, and is a registered professional engineer. He has worked for the Lower Colorado River Authority since March 2004 as supervisor of the River Operations Center. He is responsible for managing operation of the Highland Lakes and the Colorado River.

Shelly Parks graduated from Baylor University with a B.B.A. in marketing and received concentrations in management and statistics. She has 14 years of public relations experience including 4 years of retail crisis communications experience with H-E-B, and 6-1/2 years of disaster/crisis response experience with the American Red Cross.

Shawn Oubre is the city manager for the city of Orange, which took a direct hit from Hurricane Rita in September of 2005. Oubre oversaw the recovery efforts. He began his career in law enforcement and continues to hold his peace officer license and has achieved the level of master peace offi- cer. He holds associate's, bachelor's and master's degrees from Lamar University.

Lurinada Barton joined the staff of the South Texas Project in 1984, where she directed site administrative services. In 1989, she joined the emergency preparedness staff at the plant and became the offsite program manager, working with local, state, and federal elected offi- cials and agencies, law enforcement, medical services, and with the site's crisis communications.

Gene Hafele has worked for the National Weather Service since July 1974. He served as lead forecaster for nine space shuttle missions. He served as the acting meteorologist-incharge from September of 2007 through January of this year. On April 27, he assumed the duties of being the full time meteorologist in-charge for the Houston/ Galveston National Weather Service Forecast Office.

Admission to the expo is free. Booth information is available by calling the chamber at 532- 1862.

The event is sponsored by TexasGulf Federal Credit Union, Wharton Chamber of Commerce, the City of Wharton and the County of Wharton.