Ombre Ga’chong: Hire a typhoon response coordinator who knows what he or she is doing

By Lee Webber

Once again, my hat is off to all those people working night and day to restore Guam to as close to normal as possible in the safest and most rapid way possible.

These are the hard working people I see along roads, in bucket trucks, working on the water and power systems and directing traffic to bring Guam back to normal. Knowing full well that they, too, have damaged homes and families to care for.

Given the propensity and historical data for storms hitting Guam it would seem to me that it would be worthwhile for the government of Guam to hire a professionally trained and experienced person to head up the civil defense/ homeland security system for the island.

Someone who is not a political appointee (unless of course they have the real credentials for same) but rather someone who will truly be working for the people of Guam as a whole.

A person that has had years of hands-on experience in the area of disaster recovery, is experienced with working with both FEMA and the military and can design and be familiar with working within those agencies’ guidelines.

Someone who would know and take full advantage of the fact that after a storm you would have active duty military assistance for the first 72 hours, and once FEMA arrived they become the direct link for getting anything federal other than FEMA assistance from the federal government.

Someone who would develop, refine and actively review a master plan for defense and restoration, keeping in mind that people and assets are constantly changing and plans must be constantly (at a minimum annually) updated to meet those changes and needs.

They would actively test, run an emergency disaster exercise of this plan annually.

A person who would work closely with FEMA, GPA, GWA, the National Guard to ensure the emergency backup supplies were up to date and in ample supply. Knowing that you cannot match everything; but, matching the critical things is imperative.

A person who would work closely with private enterprise to ensure that they, too, were adequately backed up for emergencies so the island was not left in communications darkness after a storm as we were following Mawar.

Someone who would understand that there is a critical need for multiple levels of communications with the public and is not dependent upon internet messaging to spread the word about emergency water, power and fuel.

A person who would ensure that the public was constantly informed via various means concerning power, water, garbage pickup, electrical repairs schedules, where and how to procure fuel for vehicles and generators.

Someone who understood that different people get their information in various ways and is capable of ensuring those ways of communication were up, running and feeding consistent and accurate information in the most rapid ways possible. 

This person would then ensure that all radio and other news organizations had priority assistance to ensure proper communications throughout the island.

And all of this would kick in prior to the storm and go live immediately following the passage of the storm. Not days and even weeks later.

Harden up Guam.

Esta.

_____

Lee P. Webber is a businessman and civic advocate, the former publisher of the Pacific Daily News, a former president and publisher of the Honolulu Advertiser, and a former director of operations for USA Today International/Asia