Gov. Ben Cayetano met with President Bush and Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge Monday during an annual meeting of the National Governors Association to discuss homeland security issues. Cayetano and Bush team
discuss homeland securityStar-Bulletin staff
"Our experiences in two world wars demonstrated conclusively the critical importance of citizen participation in homeland defense," Cayetano said in a press release.
"In planning our homeland defense strategy," he continued, "we must draw upon those experiences and establish a long-term plan that utilizes the experience and knowledge of citizens from every segment of our community.
"The final objective then," he said, "is to create a seamless homeland defense system which employs the experience and expertise of every citizen -- from Hawaii's retired doctors or nurses to small business owners and all others."
Last year, Hawaii was the second state in the nation to submit to the U.S. Department of Justice a three-year strategic plan on terrorism preparedness.
The state earlier had formed a terrorism executive steering committee, now called the Hawaii Emergency Preparedness Executive Committee.
Hawaii officials are working on developing a program to improve the state's ability to respond to bioterrorism and to deal with natural disasters.
The state Department of Health expects to receive an $8.3 million federal grant to build epidemiological and disease surveillance systems, increase laboratory capacity, improve communications systems and supplement hospital response capabilities to deal with mass casualties.
The state Department of Health is also completing a plan that will allow Hawaii to receive, distribute and dispense pharmaceutical supplies if a biological or chemical event were to occur.