By Gerardo R. Partido
Variety News Staff

THE responses and procedures that will be adopted by Guam during this week’s TopOff 4 exercise will be studied for adoption in other insular areas and parts of the U.S. that suffer from the “tyranny of distance.”
This was disclosed by TopOff and U.S. Homeland Security officials during yesterday’s press conference related to today’s kick off of the TopOff 4 exercise.
DHS exercise director Nathan Rogers said all U.S. areas, including the insular areas, are fair game for terrorist attacks so holding a TopOff exercise on Guam is prudent.
Shawn Gumataotao, the governor’s spokesman and the local TopOff coordinator, said the CNMI and all the insular areas are monitoring what happens on Guam because these areas are also remote from the U.S. mainland.
“The whole of Micronesia is watching. This will serve as a model for our regional partners,” Gumataotao said.
Doug Welty, a public affairs officer at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said there are also observers from Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Gumataotao said Hawaii and Alaska are also monitoring the Guam TopOff exercise closely because, although they are states, they also suffer from being far from federal resources.
It was made clear during yesterday’s press conference that Guam applied, and was not chosen, to be included in the TopOff exercises, although analysts have said Guam’s inclusion was inevitable given the decision to expand the military presence on island.
There were issues with regard to who would pay for the massive amount of food and drinks that will be consumed in the weeklong exercise but Gumataotao said yesterday this has been resolved and that a memorandum of agreement has been signed between GovGuam and federal authorities.
He added that what GovGuam learns from the exercise can be used in a variety of emergencies.
“This is not just preparation for a terrorist attack but also for other emergencies like earthquakes and typhoons,” he said.
Welty said the organizers have tried their best to make the exercise as realistic as possible.
“Officials will be making decisions in real time. And we hope to apply some of the lessons we learned from Hurricane Katrina in the states,” said Welty, whose agency is in charge of federal disaster response.
Guamatotao said Gov. Felix P. Camacho, along with the governors of Oregon and Arizona, is taking time off this week from other matters to participate fully in the exercise.
“This is how important the exercise is. This is the culmination of all the administration’s efforts over the past few years to improve the island’s emergency response system and procedures,” Gumataotao said.
TopOff 4 is based on National Planning Scenario 11 under which terrorists who have been planning attacks in Oregon, Arizona and the U.S. territory of Guam successfully bring radioactive material into the United States.
The first of three coordinated attacks occurs in Guam, with the simulated detonation of a radiological dispersal device, or RDD, a “dirty bomb” that causes casualties and widespread contamination in a populous area.
Similar attacks occur in the hours that follow in Portland and Phoenix.
An RDD is not the same as a nuclear attack, DHS explained. An RDD is a conventional explosive that, upon detonation, releases radioactive material into the surrounding area.
Although it does not cause the type of catastrophic damage associated with a nuclear detonation, DHS said there are severe rescue, health and long-term decontamination concerns associated with an RDD.
According to Rogers, the TopOff 4 scenario is based on research into actual terrorist organizations’ capabilities and news accounts of events that have transpired since Sept. 11, 2001.
He said the scenario is plausible, but purely fictional and it is not based on specific military or government intelligence, nor is it intended as a forecast of future terrorist activities.
Rogers also said real weapons will not be used in the scenario, but the response will be mounted as if they had been.