Sadness
It is with deep sadness I share with you the passing of Paulette Kandel, a longtime friend, colleague, and respected professional in Florida’s emergency management community.
Many of you who served in emergency management, emergency preparedness, public safety, and local government across Florida may have known her, worked with her, or crossed paths with her over the years. Some may not have been in touch recently, and I wanted to make sure her passing was known among those who would remember her.
I knew Paulette for nearly forty years, and I knew her best during the years she worked with me. For twelve years, she served as my right hand in operations. She was dedicated, committed, smart, kind, and steady. In the emergency management business, those qualities are not decorative. They are essential. When pressure came, when decisions had to be made, when plans had to become action, Paulette was there.
She stood on the wall when it mattered.
Emergency management is often invisible work. The public may never know the names of the people who prepared the plans, staffed the operations centers, made the calls, solved the problems, and kept things moving when others were depending on them. Paulette was one of those people. She did the work. She carried the load. She helped protect communities through professionalism, judgment, loyalty, and quiet resolve.
Those of us who spent our lives in this field know the value of a dependable operations person. We know the value of someone who can be trusted when the phones are ringing, the weather is turning, the reports are coming in, and the next decision matters. Paulette earned that trust. She earned it day by day, year by year, through service and character.
Although time and retirement had put some distance between those working years and today, I never forgot Paulette fondly, and I never lost respect for the person she was or the work she did. She was well regarded by her colleagues, valued by those who worked with her, and remembered with affection by many who had the privilege to know her.
We have lost more than a former co-worker. We have lost one of our own — a compatriot in a demanding profession, a trusted hand in difficult times, and a good and decent person who gave much of herself to public service.
Paulette now joins a long line of emergency management professionals we have lost. All of them did a job not everyone wanted, often under pressure, often without applause, and often far from public view. They prepared, answered, organized, endured, and served because the work mattered. For that service, she deserves our thanks, our respect, and our remembrance.
Rest in peace, Paulette. You served well. You were always there. You will be remembered.
Semper fidelis fratribus sororibusque in discrimine.
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