Region prepares Y2K disaster plan (Ottawa Citizen )
(Y2K)
Nov 26, 13:42
Police on full alert for critical period
Concerns over the millennium bug have led the
Ottawa-Carleton police force to ban its 1,300 employees
from taking vacations during the critical period
surrounding Jan. 1, 2000.
In January, all of the players in the region's emergency
response system, from police and fire departments to
hospitals, are expected to begin working on an overall
Y2K disaster plan.
No one knows for certain what will happen at midnight on
Dec. 31, 1999, but scenarios range from minor power
outages to full-blown failures in the computers that
control everything from water supplies and traffic
lights to banking and air traffic control.
A chief concern is the 911 telephone system, the
backbone of the region's emergency services. Already,
plans are in place for uninterrupted emergency power and
heating to the Elgin Street police headquarters, where
the 911 system is based.
The RCMP recently issued a nationwide ban on all
vacation and leave to ensure a full force is available
to fight the millennium bug. And the the military has
been ordered to plan for the worst -- dubbed Operation
Abacus -- with troops and frigates ready to be deployed
across the country to provide emergency services should
computer foul-ups in 2000 create civil chaos.
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Some Y2K experts suggest adequate home protection
against a possible worse-case scenario entails the 5Gs:
Grub, Gold, Generator, Guns and GOD.
gold-eagle.com |
