ASDHS holds after-action report on needed updates to emergency ops

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The Department of Homeland Security held a final After-Action Report (AAR) meeting, yesterday morning, September 25, 2025, for its Hurricane Lala Table Top Exercise (TTX) that had identified 15 areas for improvement in the AAR. ASDHS led the meeting which had representatives from many of the government 1st responder departments gather, as well as private sector media‚ KSBS Radio and Samoa News.

The meeting served to “identify which agencies would like to contribute to which areas of improvement and the timeframe needed to do so” that were identified in the TTX. The information from the meeting will be used to complete the AAR and to develop an Improvement Plan to the territory’s Emergency Response — it’s TEOP — which is used during disasters, i.e. hurricanes, floods, tsunami, landslides, etc.

The last time American Samoa’s Territorial Emergency Operations Plan (TEOP) was formally updated was in 2018. An update was planned in 2022, but the previous administration did not sign-off on it. This AAR will document the territory’s updates to its TEOP, which is an all-hazards plan to coordinate emergency response, preparedness, and recovery for disasters.

There were three objectives to the recent TTX: Operational Coordination; Operational Communications, and, Public Information and Warning. These are the areas that were reviewed in Thursday’s AAR meeting.

Of interest, was the information from ASHS- TEMCO about the efforts that are being made to bring operational communications back online — rebuilding “core” sites. Apparently, there is currently no communication systems in place to ensure continuity during outages — either on Tutuila or Manu’a. And, while the Tutuila system is being re-built, Manu’a is still very much only a plan due to funding.

For Tutuila, the Mt. Alava antennae is being repaired with a road to go up to the site to be built beginning this Monday, Sept. 29th. Once the road is built, the Mt. Alava antennae — a core site — can be repaired and Tutuila will have an island-wide emergency communication support system in place that will offer consistent connectivity during emergencies.

This is especially important due to cell phones currently being the most locally available emergency communication tool right now. There is work to have the P25 Radio System up and running soon, which allows for interoperable digital standards for land mobile radio equipment. With StarLink also brought into the emergency communications system, the TEOP coordination would have access to satellite, radio and cell phone (cable) — in other words, back-up to back-up to back-up access.

For Manu’a, unfortunately there’s no funding to develop the Mt. Tumu core site — it needs road access as well as equipment for Ta’u island to connect. And once Ta’u is connected it will still need a repeater built on Ta’u to send the signal to the other Manu’a islands.

In the meantime, the closest it can come to an emergency communications system connection would be for ASTCA to repair the undersea fiber optic cable that has been down for several years now. There has been no word when any of the Manu’a plans will happen, although maybe the end of next year 2026 for the Mt. Tumu core site.

In the area of Operational Coordination, the meeting discussed the need to formalize the roles for village mayors in the TEOP. ASDHS said it has met with the head of Samoan Affairs and he has agreed that mayors should play a bigger role during emergency responses and his department will work with ASDHS- TEMCO to identify, train and support the roles the mayors will play.

The upgrade of refuge areas was also discussed. Noted was that the word, ‘shelter’ would no longer be used to identify areas where the public will go during a disaster emergency. The areas of refuge were identified as DOE buildings and church halls in particular.

One of the key take aways from the meeting was the understanding that clear boundaries in responsibilities should be identified, with the joint effort by all 1st responders be a matter of “speaking with one voice” and “speaking one language”. This can only occur through training and acknowledging one’s role in the TEOP.