Civil Defense Hawaii Civil Defense officials continue to prepare for acts of terrorism in the islands but hope they never see the real thing.
alert to possible
attack in isles
The state prepares its
counterterrorism plan but
the governor says
the threat is waningBy Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.com"Considering the magnitude of the event (on the East Coast), all of Hawaii's safety, security and emergency response agencies have been working on this and just getting everything ready to go ... (if something like that happened here) -- God forbid," said Barbara Hendrie, public information officer for the state Civil Defense.
"This event is so widespread ... so many states are just mobilizing, or have been throughout the day, to steel themselves or to brace themselves for an impact," Hendrie said.
State and county Civil Defense agencies remained on alert as of last night, although the immediate threat was waning, Gov. Ben Cayetano said yesterday.
"So far the intelligence we have received or what has been made known to us doesn't indicate we would experience what happened in New York," Cayetano said.
Hendrie said the state's counterterrorism plan, which has been in place for the past 18 months, is a multiagency effort that initially calls for heightened security followed by a "full spectrum" of responses, depending on the type of terrorism experienced.
Local Civil Defense agencies were activated early yesterday morning, following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Among the most pressing issues here were the accommodation of 3,200 Japanese passengers whose flights to the mainland were diverted to the islands after all U.S. airports were shut down.
Security was beefed up at all state airports, where emergency operation centers were set up.
Paul Takamiya, acting administrator of the Oahu Civil Defense Agency, said a group of Hawaii tourism officials and hotel executives were able find hotel rooms for these people, but Civil Defense officials were prepared to open emergency shelters if not enough rooms were found.
Takamiya said the county would have to immediately seek help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency if such an attack occurred in Honolulu, which has limited search-and-rescue capabilities and nothing to the scale now needed in New York City.
"The magnitude is just so large that it's just unimaginable," Takamiya said. "Who would have imagined they would be able to orchestrate something like this? Hijacking four aircraft, at least that we know, taking them over and driving them right into those buildings."
Takamiya said the tragedy raises issues for emergency officials to discuss and prepare for. He expects Oahu Civil Defense to remain activated at least through the night.
Hendrie said the state Civil Defense will remain activated as long as FEMA and other federal agencies such as the Department of Defense and FBI are on alert status.
