Protecting the area for war is no small dice, but local airport and transportation authorities say they have it under control.

Greg Haug, director of the Bismarck Airport, said he has met with Transportation Security Administration officials as to how to further increase security. Travelers can expect the same routine with passenger and baggage inspections. He suggested people arrive about 90 minutes before their flight departs.

"We've seen in the past, as the security level rises, we could expect the processing time for passengers also to rise, but that depends on what requirements are laid out on air carriers," Haug said.

On Tuesday, the Bismarck Airport began random vehicle searches near the terminal, directed by TSA, but discontinued them on Wednesday. Haug said if necessary, inspections will begin again.

"If the intelligence community determines we need to increase our security at the airport and elevate the threat level and they give us guidance to do other security functoins, we're certainly going to do them," he said.

At this point, there has been no word of flight cancellations. Doug Rutledge, Bismarck station manager for Northwest Airlines, said any decrease would come in international flights. He hasn't seen a reduction in passengers or an increase in cancellations by travelers, but the company is anticipating a 15 percent reduction in passenger traffic systemwide.

"It's really tough to say what will happen here locally in the terms of passenger loads or cancellations," he said.

Joe Gutensohn, federal security director for the Transportation Security Administration for western and central North Dakota, said his department has increased security on the perimeters of airports and is working closely with the North Dakota Department of Homeland Security and Highway Patrol and local police.

"People can expect the same security they've seen since Nov. 19 (2002) when TSA took over," he said. "We have to be vigilant for not only terrorists from the areas they came from (on Sept. 11, 2001) but there are terrorist groups in over 60 countries we know of," Gutensohn said. " Air travel will be as safe during a war as pre-war, we've instituted the highest level of security pre-war and anticipate carrying it on during any conflict."

At Garrison Dam, the security level has been high for a couple of months, Todd Lindquist, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operations manager for the Garrison Project, said Wednesday.

Although the nation's terror alert status was raised from "elevated" to "high" Monday night, Lindquist said the corps follows the military's threat assessment, which has been on a higher state of alert.

When war starts, "I fully expect we'll get additional guidance," Lindquist said, "and we may have to take additional measures.

"Right now, we're fully prepared."

Burleigh County's bridges and roads are under the watch of the road and bridge department's director Jon Mill. He said that while guarding each of the 100 bridges and 1,600 miles of road would be nearly impossible, his department is working closely with local police to increase their focus and observation of specific areas.

"We're treating (war) like a pending flood; we're asking drivers to be cautious, watch for anything suspicious and if they notice anything out of the ordinary, report it no matter how insignificant it seems," Mill said.

(Reporter Richard Hinton contributed to this story.)