Authorities beef up emergency responses

California-based officials from the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services shared to local authorities over the weekend their expertise on accurate methods in handling hazardous materials crucial to preventing mass destruction.

The training was participated in by the Emergency Management Office, the Division of Environmental Quality, the Department of Public Safety and other agencies.

After witnessing Northern Marianas’ emergency management team grapple with a hypothetical crisis, Emergency Services instructor Vance Benett was quick to note that local responders, with six years of extensive groundwork experience in handling hazardous materials, are more competent as compared to some emergency response operations in the United States.

“A weapon of mass destruction is no different from that of a hazardous material which DPS and DEQ have done a lot of training on for the past several years. The department is actually probably better off than most agencies we deal with in the states, with the level of training they have done, their planning and commitment and the number of people they had who are very knowledgeable about this matter,” Mr. Benett told a press briefing Friday after a Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Agent Terrorism exercise held on Capitol Hill.

OES officials during the exercise plotted a case scenario involving a former Governor’s Office employee, who after being axed from his job retaliated against the company by putting anthrax in a jar and leaving it to infect the office workers.

According to Mr. Benett, the exercise was aimed at testing the emergency response procedures used by EMO, DPS, and DEQ and to train them how to deal with an incident that could very possibly involve mass destruction.

“Everyone was enthusiastic and they did exactly as they were trained to do. We saw that here today in the way they approached the scene. They did not rush in. What happens all the time is that responders will all rush in and they get contaminated or they become part of the disaster victims. The way they are trained to do is if something is hazardous or is a biological agent, they are supposed to stop and go slow, take their time and really ensure their own safety and isolate the scene and that is what exactly what they did,” said the expert.

Moreover, Mr. Benett also underscored the need for local authorities to beef up emergency response procedures and efforts, citing CNMI’s isolation from the rest of the United States, where assistance pertaining to major disasters cannot be immediately accessed. The earliest response will only arrive 24 hours after an incident occurs, according to Mr. Benett.

Mr. Benett, along with OES experts Mike Brady and Jeff Paulus, concluded the training last week with three participants from Rota, two from Tinian, and Saipan-based EMO personnel. The training was funded by the Federal Emergency Management.

The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, established in 1950, coordinates overall state agency response to major disasters in support of local government. The office is responsible for assuring the state’s readiness to respond to and recover from natural, man-made, and war-caused emergencies, and for assisting local governments in their emergency preparedness, response and recovery efforts.

During major emergencies, OES may call upon all state agencies to help provide support.

The California National Guard, Highway Patrol, Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Conservation Corps, Department of Social Services, Department of Health Services and the Department of Transportation are the agencies most often asked to respond and assist in emergency response activities due to their specialized capabilities.