Against the back wall of the command centre at Guam Homeland Security, a nondescript telephone is perched on a shelf. It’s the phone no one in the room wants to hear ringing: It alerts Guam to an incoming ballistic missile.

A call on this phone would only come from the U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii to inform Guam of the impending strike.

If it were to ring, a blue light would flash and immediately set into motion a chain of emergency response procedures to alert all of Guam’s roughly 162,000 civilians of the threat within two minutes. The system includes mass notification sirens that are positioned around the island, radio and television emergency broadcasts, and emergency medical workers and village mayors equipped with mobile public address systems.

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Workers at the Homeland Security office have been on 24-hour duty fielding questions from residents and the media since North Korea warned last week it was preparing a missile test that would create an “enveloping fire” in the waters off Guam.

“Guam has been through supertyphoons, an 8.2 earthquake, tsunami warnings — just about anything and everything that can threaten this tiny little island — so we’ve been conditioned to stay calm in a situation like this,” said Dee Cruz, the office’s grants manager and senior desk watch officer. “I’m not saying we look danger in the face and dare it to do its worst,” she added, “we just know what to do to prepare.”

But being ready for a ballistic missile strike is not like preparing for a typhoon. For one thing, tropical storms move at an average speed of about 20 kph, giving people in Guam several days to prepare. A ballistic missile launched from North Korea, however, would take just 17 minutes to hit the waters off the island.

“From the moment the sirens sound off, everyone should be ready to shelter in place,” Cruz said. “It’s important to make a plan now so that when it’s time for an emergency you’ll know what to do.”

Cruz detailed the preparations people needed to take.

“Create a family group chat so you can quickly communicate with each other instead of making individual calls,” Cruz suggested. “Make sure you have an emergency kit with basic supplies — small items like water and a first aid kit can save a life in an emergency situation.”

For many on the island, which is home to Andersen Air Force Base and Naval Base Guam, being prepared for an emergency is second nature, said Andrew Lee, a local firefighter and former Marine.

“The nature of my job is to be ready to respond in the capacity that we are able — that’s the way it is in any fire department, not just the Guam Fire Department,” he said. “At home, we have a bug-out bag prepared for an emergency, but we’re always hoping for the best,” he said, referring to the portable survival kits many families here have.

Despite North Korea’s threat to lob a missile toward Guam, many residents seem to be taking things in stride. Guam’s largest supermarket chain, Pay-Less Supermarkets, has not seen any unusual shopping activity in its eight stores, said Kathy Sgro, the company’s executive vice president.

“While we haven’t noticed an increase in sales of canned goods, bottled water, or emergency items such as candles and batteries, we have seen a small spike in sales of antacids and milk of magnesia, which makes me wonder if people are experiencing higher levels of anxiety than usual,” Sgro said.

Regine Biscoe Lee, a senator in Guam’s Legislature, thinks there is a heightened sense of anxiety among the people of Guam but said that her office had not received any calls regarding the North Korean threat.

“Here on Guam it’s business as usual, but that doesn’t mean we’re turning a blind eye to the situation,” she said. “Faith and family — that’s what people cling to here on Guam. When things get serious, we stick together, and we’re here for one another.”

Adding to anxieties, a local broadcaster conducted an unscheduled test on Tuesday of the emergency broadcast system and did not realize it went live.

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Anthony Matanona, a baker who runs a traditional hotnu bakery in Inarajan, Guam’s oldest and best-preserved village from the Spanish era, noted that Guam’s history had inured people to coping with outside threats.

“Guam and our people have been through hell and back — and not just through the destruction of natural elements like typhoons and earthquakes,” Matanoma said as he greeted customers and took orders for coconut bread.

“We were colonized under Spain for 300 years and occupied by Japan for four years of war before we became Americanized,” he said. “We survived all of that, so I’m not worried. I still have to grate the coconut, I have to make sure I open up in the morning — I have to continue living.”

Some people on Guam are even seizing on the media’s current obsession with the territory to draw attention to the plight of Guam’s civilians, portraying them as innocent pawns in a fight between two nuclear-armed nations.

In a Facebook post that went viral, “An Open Letter From Guam to America,” Victoria-Lola M. Leon Guerrero wrote, “This land, this beautiful island everyone wants to bomb because of you, is my land, not yours.”

“I want to go to sleep peacefully knowing that my family is safe in our home,” she wrote. “So please, stop all this bomb talk. And instead, ask yourself why Guam is still your colony in 2017.”

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