by Michele Catahay, KUAM News Tuesday, June 26, 2007 Subscribe to Michele's newsfeed   E-mail this article Printable version KUAM Toolbar Web Widgets Get RSS headlines

Federal and local officials are preparing for the upcoming national exercise TOPOFF 4, which will take place in October. The U.S. Department of Defense's Pacific Command Joint Task Force for Homeland Defense hosted a conference today at the Westin Hotel in Tumon, to help facilitate disaster plans among all stakeholder agencies.

Lieutenant Colonel Stanley Toy told KUAM News, "By virtually the fact that we have all these stakeholders at this venue allows us to better collaborate, achieve that level of interoperability...so that we can ensure that we have applied the capability and resources at the appropriate levels with mitigation during a disaster." Experts were able to give presentations on topics including the principles of radiation, radiation control and chemical agents as well as the roles and responsibilities of the first responders and other signs associated with terrorism.

Meanwhile, new homeland security advisor Dennis Santo Tomas says he's prepared to take on the task of working on the local end to ensure that Guam is prepared if any disaster should happen. "I would like to let the people of Guam know," he stated, "That TOPOFF is putting Guam on center stage and I ask that we all collectively take it as a serious exercise. We are probably the model of where you have true joint interoperability between military, civil authorities, and even non-profit organizations and private businesses all coming together to get out of a sticky situation."

The 2007 Joint Preparedness Conference will conclude on Friday.