Five years after the terror of Sept. 11, Maine and the nation are better prepared to deal with another attack, but not necessarily ready, according to a wide range of state and federal officials.

Today, Maine has a “fusion center” in Augusta that coordinates the efforts of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the U.S. Coast Guard, FBI, Border Patrol, Transportation Security Agency and other organizations.

And the Coast Guard and Maine Marine Patrol have new cooperation agreements, while game wardens and other state and local officers are assisting the Border Patrol.

“Are we safer? Yes,” said Charles Jacobs, acting director of the Maine Emergency Management Agency.

“Going back to 9-11, we had terrorists come through Maine. I think it’s more likely that something like that would be intercepted now,” Jacobs said.

He was referring to the two terrorists who flew from Portland International Jetport to Boston before boarding the flight they commandeered and flew into the World Trade Center.

But questions remain.

During a lengthy homeland security hearing Friday in Portland, speaker after speaker stressed that the problem involves larger questions: communication, training, health care, equipment and more.

“Preparedness is it,” stressed one of the participants. “And practice, practice, practice.”

“I still have a number of questions about whether we are prepared enough,” said U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, who heads the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Collins sponsored creation of the federal Department of Homeland Security and other measures dealing with post-Sept. 11 security.

There is no doubt that governments at all levels are better prepared for a terrorist attack than they were five years ago, she said in an interview.

But terrorists “are always going to innovate,” she said. As we strengthen or harden one aspect of our transportation system, for example, “they are going to look at new ways and new vulnerabilities.”

One of the areas Collins is still concerned about and trying to shore up involves screening of cargo at the nation’s ports. She has sponsored legislation to require more screening of containers and to bolster protections to stop nuclear materials from being smuggled into the country.

“There are 111 million containers that come into our ports each year. Each one has the potential to be the Trojan horse of the 21st century,” she said.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud of Maine’s 2nd District said that despite the billions of dollars spent to bolster security and improve readiness, many areas of serious vulnerability remain.

“I don’t think we are [ready],” Michaud said. “If you look at the report from the 9-11 Commission, they spelled out in great detail what we should do. Then you look at the reports of what went wrong in the response to Hurricane Katrina, [and] it’s clear they weren’t followed.”

A Coast Guard officer, speaking at Friday’s hearing in Portland, said there are “very great disconnects” at the Coast Guard’s New Orleans operations, which were dramatically put to the test during the Hurricane Katrina response a year ago.

“The city held off the Coast Guard in many ways,” said Capt. Stephen Garrity. But he believes the Coast Guard is finding considerable support “all over Maine.”

Michaud said a major concern of the 9-11 Commission was the inability of first responders to communicate in the aftermath of the attacks. He said that same concern was cited in reports on the response to Hurricane Katrina.

As for threats to Maine’s ports, “the Coast Guard prefers to intervene a thousand miles off Portland – not in the harbor,” Garrity said.

Should an in-port disaster occur, “we’d hold the fort until the cavalry arrived,” he said, “and I think the cavalry would arrive.”

Nevertheless, “We still have a lot to do,” he said.

At the Maine Emergency Management Agency, Jacobs cited progress in allowing all of the responders to a crisis, whether human or natural, to communicate adequately.

For example, he said, the state is replacing its VHF radio public safety network, which serves the state police and other agencies. He said the upgrade will improve reliability in any sort of emergency, as will new Internet-based communications systems.

“And we have satellite phones for a backup for communications with the counties,” he said. “And we even have ham radio volunteers.”

Jacobs’ boss, Maj. Gen. John W. Libby, who is Maine’s adjutant general and commissioner of the Department of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management, said in an interview that training will always be an issue with new hires and the need for updates.

He said Maine has updated equipment for responding to a chemical or biological attack through its Waterville-based weapons of mass destruction response team.

Still, he acknowledged that the National Guard in Maine is short of equipment to respond to an emergency because of the deployment of units to Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We are somewhere between 34 and 38 percent of the equipment that we are authorized to have, on hand,” he said. “That’s about what other states have on hand.”

In addition to the first responder preparedness efforts, there has been a parallel effort to upgrade communications and capacity of Maine hospitals and public health providers to respond to a crisis.

Dr. Dora Mills, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the Sept. 11 attacks were a “wake-up” call for the nation’s public health providers.

In the aftermath of the attacks it became clear that Maine, and the nation, were less prepared to respond to a public health emergency, such as a biological or chemical weapons attack, than they were for the flu pandemic of 1918. “We had a public health infrastructure then,” she said. “We are now rebuilding that infrastructure that we never should have allowed to wither.”

During Friday’s hearing in Portland, state Sen. Ethan Strimling, D-Portland, asked how his city would fare if a dirty bomb went off on Commercial Street.

Maine does not have the ability and external resources to deal with such a catastrophe, Portland Fire Chief Fred LaMontagne replied.

Dr. Jim Maier, a Portland psychiatrist, told the task force: “We need mobile teams who can set up hospitals in the field. We haven’t been doing dress rehearsals for these things.”

Maier and other speakers recommended a central coordinating authority be established for handling disasters and a clear communications plan.

“We don’t have a real coordinated public heath infrastructure in this state, and it’s a pretty serious problem,” said Dr. Lani Graham, medical director for the Bureau of Health’s Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness. “Maine’s greatest risk is from disease.”

It would seem Portland, with its many hospitals, would have an edge over smaller communities in a disaster, but Dr. Anthony Tomassoni, medical director of Northern New England Poison Center, said, “We’re using all of it every day,” referring to health care capacity.

In October 2001, an anthrax scare at the Portland post office nearly put Maine Medical Center to the test. The hospital was at risk of having a 120-patient surge, said Tomassoni, an emergency room physician at the time.

Through established professional contacts, potential patients were moved to the local armory, unrelated medical needs of a few people were met, and the suspect powder was taken to Augusta for testing.

“Within two hours, we knew it wasn’t an issue,” Tomassoni said. “It took sharing information – and we all knew each other – and a little luck.”

“I don’t want to depend on that luck,” Tomassoni said.

Writers Mal Leary of Capital News Service, Leanne M. Robicheau of the BDN and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

BANGOR DAILY NEWS FILE PHOTO BY KEVIN BENNETT

Coast Guardsmen Jared Larow (foreground) and Chris Haun keep an eye on the cruise ship Rotterdam as it enters Frenchman Bay at Bar Harbor in a 2002 file photo. Five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, U.S. disaster planning has improved, says Capt. Stephen Garrity. Should an in-port disaster occur, “we’d hold the fort until the cavalry arrived,” he said, “and I think the cavalry would arrive.”