The activity was part of the Table Top exercises which aims to overview the Palau’s National Emergency Office for disaster management and the communication within the incident command system.
Stephanie Boyer, JTF-HD support team, said that the goal of the exercises is to see where is Palau at now, what communication technology is in place and what needs to be improved or developed in responding to a typhoon incident.The scenario: A typhoon called Sepat has formed 450 kilometers southeast of Pacific and would pass close to Pacific Island.The weather report indicates that the typhoon has an eye radius of 18 Kilometers and winds are 260 Kilometer per hour.In the morning, it has been reported that Pacific Island was experiencing heavy rains accompanied by high winds and some flooding has occurred, damage is still minor and utilities and communications system are still functioning normally.But after four hours, the typhoon passed by Pacific Island 120 kilometers to the north and winds on Pacific Island are at 175 kilometers per hour. Rains have caused heavy flooding and many roads are impassable and major damages have occurred.The participants were divided into four groups which represents the government, technology system, standard operating procedure and training and communication exercises.There were 45 representatives from various agencies that participated in the training exercises such as Attorney General, NEMO, Bureau of Public Safety, Weather Services, Quarantine Division, PNCC, Belau Hospital, Ministry of Commerce, Japan Embassy, US Embassy, Philippine Embassy, PPUC, Division of Customs, Immigration Division, Division of Labor, PLA, Peleliu State Ranger.Today, the participants will conduct No-Notice Mass Casualty exercises at the airport.US Army Major Ken Weiland, HQ US Pacific Command’s Communications System Planner, said that the training exercises is an opportunity to share information with Palau and vice versa on how to facilitate the response for any incidents that would require several authorities to respond.The first two days will focus on communication and ability and the remaining two days will focus on HAZMAT exercises.Major Weiland said two weeks ago the same exercise was held in Tinian, CNMI. Table Top exercises focused on plane crash incident.
