‘CNMI agencies should understand US military’s role in time of disaster’

CNMI agencies should understand the military’s role during a disaster event, according to Joint Task Force Homeland Defense chief of operations Lt. Col. Stanley E. Toy.

Toy said the military obviously has significant capability in resources and that they are trying to ensure everybody understands what the process is for requesting military support.

“It is very important that agencies clearly understand where the military fits in the grand scheme of things in terms of providing the most appropriate resources based on the requirements needed,” Toy told the media yesterday during a break in the ongoing Joint Task Force-Homeland Defense Training at the Pacific Islands Club’s Charley’s Cabaret in San Antonio.

In the five-day conference that started last Monday, he said they have been discussing “all hazard, no-notice emergency events.”

Toy said the emphasis is on emergency communication and planning on how agencies coordinate their response and recovery efforts in the face of crisis events or disaster.

He said participants in the training are inter-agency partners from the Emergency Management Office, Department of Public Safety’s police and fire divisions, private sector, airlines, Commonwealth Ports Authority, and military.

“All these folks come together to discuss their roles and responsibilities for a disaster event. So the outcome really is to share information on the plans that are supposed to allow these agencies to synchronize their resources,” he said.

In addition, the official said, they want to ensure that everybody knows who everybody is so that they are not meeting for the first time when there is a crisis.

Lastly, Toy pointed out, they want everybody to understand where the military fits in.

“Because we [military] are not in charge. We are in support of civil authorities when requested and when called upon,” he said.

Toy said disasters could be a natural event like a typhoon, or a man-made event such as a bomb blast.

“It could be an airport disaster, plane crash, ship sinking in the harbor,” he said. “Those kinds of events require us to act immediately.”

Since 2006, the Joint Task Force-Homeland Defense, in coordination with EMO and the Governor’s Office, had hosted six to seven such conferences on Saipan.

Toy said this kind training is very important to the CNMI because the islands have limited capabilities and resources.

He said the available resources should be handled efficiently and effectively so that the emergency agencies can sustain for a longer period of time before help is expected from Guam, Hawaii or from somewhere else within the region.