Alonzo Kyota, NEMO Director in an interview last week said that they always do rescue operation exercises or emergency drill exercises to familiarize the responders to any emergency situation.
“I think we’re ready. We do have a national response mechanism in place and its reflected in the 1999 National Disaster Plan then we do exercise. As a matter of fact, on September 22 and 23 we’re having exercises in the airport and it’s a crash exercise so that’s how we practice this response mechanism,”he said.Kyota said the drill exercises was done every three years and was sponsored by the FAA.He said Palau is ready for any major incidents despite the lack of equipment and resources.“We don’t really have a lot of equipment and resources but we can use the National Emergency Committee and the government’s pool resources together in the event we run out of resources and then there’s private sectors to assist the government in case of emergency,”he said.Kyota said responders need to practice from time to time to be ready of any situation.He said the last time that Palau encountered a typhoon was in 1990 and the last major disaster was in 1996 when a major bridge collapsed.
