AUGUSTA – If terrorists were to strike today in Maine, most of the state is covered by plans to handle the emergency. But the equipment needed to implement the plans has not been purchased, and few of the personnel that might be called on to respond have been trained.

“I think we are better off than many states,” Art Cleaves, Maine Emergency Management Agency director, said Friday, “but no, I can’t tell you we are ready.”

But, Cleaves said, while there is no indication that there is any specific terrorist threat to the state, the list of possible targets is significant.

“We have to be prepared because no one really knows,” he said.

While facilities that might be targets are not being publicly identified now, a report released earlier this year by General Accounting Office, the investigative and research service for Congress, listed power plants, water supplies, military bases, airports, ports, pipelines and storage facilities as vulnerable to terrorists.

“I can’t get into what has been done, but, yes, there is increased security,” Cleaves said. “And we are still reviewing what more might need to be done.”

The most visible increased security is at airports with National Guard troops deployed to help local police and private security firms. There also is an increased presence in ports such as Portland Harbor by state Marine Patrol units as well as the U.S. Coast Guard. But much of what has been done to increase security is not readily apparent, and officials will not elaborate.

Even with increased security precautions, state officials, however, are very much aware of the lesson learned from last month’s terrorist attacks.

“If someone is willing to give up their life in a terrorist attack, it is very, very hard to stop them,” Gov. Angus King said last week. “The Israelis have seen it for years, and now we have seen it at home.”

King said the fact there are individuals willing to commit terrorist acts is forcing Maine, like every other state, to take a close look at its emergency planning, even though the state is not a likely target. He has a Cabinet-level task force overseeing the process, and MEMA has had an anti-terrorism task force working on plans for two years.

An interim assessment by state and local officials of Maine’s ability to respond to a terrorist attack is disturbing:

. There is not enough equipment to protect first responders at the scene of a possible terrorist attack, including firefighters, police and emergency medical technicians.

. Many of Maine’s first responders are not trained in terrorism response.

. There are serious gaps in emergency communications between the first responders.

. Few counties have specific plans for dealing with a terrorist attack.

. Few doctors and hospital personnel have been trained to recognize and deal with chemical and biological weapons.

While those shortcomings are worrisome, Maine is in much better shape than it was in 1999, when federal funds first were made available to the state. Since then, MEMA has worked on plans and the state was chosen to get one of the first National Guard Weapons of Mass Destruction teams.

Lt. Col. Gerry Dunlap is the commander of the Waterville-based 22-person unit created in January 2000. He said the unit has been conducting field-training exercises every month, but has not received all of its equipment and is not fully trained.

“We will be receiving a mobile analytical lab, but we are making do until then,” he said recently. “We have completed 90 percent of our training, and we can do the job.”

The unit has the latest in protective gear and has a full mobile command post that has state-of-the-art communications gear, including a satellite phone. But the unit is designed to back up the first responders and it is several hours from its base to some areas of the state.

“That’s why we are developing eight teams around the state,” Cleaves said. “Our goal, I stress our goal, is to have a team within an hour of an incident. And yes, I realize when we are talking lives, that is not what I would like, but we have to operate with what is realistic.”

Those teams will be developed from the base of the current haz-mat, or hazardous materials, teams already in place around the state. In many cases, those units are not fully trained or equipped to handle a hazardous materials spill.

Aside from the MEMA-created regional teams, little has been done to specifically prepare for a terrorist strike in Maine. The Bureau of Health received its first federal dollars last year and has improved the analysis capability of the state health lab and has developed plans for handling an attack, but little training has been completed.

Law enforcement officials have discussed the need for additional training for police responding to a potential terrorist attack scene, but few officers have been trained. A few departments have gas masks for some officers, but they are for use when tear gas or other crowd-control substances are used and likely would not be effective against chemical or biological weapons.

“There is a real gap there,” Cleaves said.

Portland Mayor Cheryl Leeman created a city task force when she found out there was no specific plan for dealing with a terrorist attack in the state’s largest city. Municipal officials from across the state will get briefed this week at the annual meeting of the Maine Municipal Association in Augusta on what they should have in place for plans to react to potential attacks.

In small communities there is little capacity to plan, and it is difficult to fund training, yet it is local police and firefighters that are likely to be first on the scene.

“I am probably the best trained in our department, but I don’t meet all the requirements for [the state certification of] firefighter one,” said David Bolstridge, chief of the 14-person volunteer fire department in Portage Lake in Aroostook County.

John True, president of the Maine Fire Chiefs Association and fire chief in South Portland, said there are many other volunteer departments that are not fully trained for basic firefighting, let alone advanced training for hazardous materials situations and terrorist attacks.

“And even when we have the training, we don’t have all the equipment,” he said.

South Portland has a hazardous materials unit that has done considerable training, but it lacks key equipment such as detection gear. Cleaves acknowledges there are far more equipment needs than what the $1.5 million set aside for Maine can provide.

“We are going to need more funds for training, but so far, we have not gotten any indication there will be additional resources for us to use,” he said.

U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said Friday adequate funding for equipment and training must be included in any funding plan for emergency preparedness Congress adopts this month.

“We need to work on this in an expeditious manner,” she said. “They need additional equipment and additional training because they are on the front lines to respond to any emergency.”

Snowe said as Congress considers legislation to pay for increased airport security, it should look at the broader needs of both the states and local governments.

Snowe said bolstering homeland defense in the age of terrorism means federal help for state and local governments for security costs, not just the traditional spending for military forces.