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NMI must be capable of handling hazmat emergency in 1st few days
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Posted on Apr 20 2008
It is very important for the CNMI to have its own capability to handle a hazardous material emergency at least in a few days, according to two hazmat experts.
All Hazard Management Professionals (AMPRO) president and lead instructor John Scott told the Saipan Tribune that the CNMI’s Emergency Response Team for Hazmat is very important for an island like the Commonwealth.
“We can’t just ask for help right next door and somebody can be here in a couple of hours. Even FEMA will take three to four days to actually get teams to respond,” Scott said.
The lead instructor underscored the need for Saipan to have its own capability to handle hazmat emergency at least the first three to four days.
Scott and AMPRO’s assistant instructor J.D. Robinson and safety manager Terry Badley trained last week at Palms Resort Saipan 25 members of the CNMI’s Emergency Response Team for Hazmat on hazardous materials.
The Emergency Management Office sponsored the training.
Scott said the training applies to what is called all-hazard response.
“It could be a chemical accident. It could be a biological event like pandemic flu. It could be a weapon of mass destruction or terrorist incident,” Scott said.
Robinson said creating a hazmat response team in the CNMI is a huge help.
“They don’t have the military here with already developed teams to perform this mission. So basically they are on their own to be self-sufficient if a matter like this will happen,” Robinson said.
The hazmat training, he stressed, is a federally mandated course that one would have to have gone through to be able to work in this kind of hazardous environment.
“So it is very important. The more people we trained the better the public response is going to be when the incident does happen,” Robinson added.
