A team from the Naval Postgraduate School, Center for Homeland Defense and Security conducted a half day session on executive leadership for major disasters for directors this morning.
The training, funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, focused on responsibilities of directors during natural and man made disasters and their response plans.
Part of the training by the Mobile Education Team was assessing any flaws in the action plans for disasters.
The Director of Readiness for FEMA Region 9 Pacific Area Office, Colby Stanton, said American Samoa is highly resilient to natural disasters, something they don’t find in other jurisdictions.
Director Stanton explained that key topics covered in the training for directors was response to hurricane, recovery and resiliency.
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The high powered FEMA team include a retired U.S Army Colonel, William Bill L. Carwile who was a FEMA Associate Administrator for Response and Recovery in 2013 and was President Obama’s Federal Coordinating Officer during major disasters in the US.
Mr. Carwile also served as Director for FEMA’s Pacific Area Office where he supervised preparedness training and exercises, mitigation and response and recovery efforts throughout the Pacific jurisdiction.
Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, Le’i Sonny Thompson addressed a critical communication problem and requested federal funding to fix it,
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Acting Governor Lemanu Palepoi Mauga attended the training which also had participants from the private sector.
