Jack -- is this what you're looking for?
Texas city stages test of 'Y2K' doomsday effects
By Chris Newton/Associated Press
A cold front was icing streets and causing power outages. A riot at a prison outside town was using up valuable police resources. To make matters worse, the 911 emergency system was broken.
The nightmare scene didn't really happen, but Lubbock officials imagined it did Wednesday as part of a test of how the city could react if, as many fear, computers driving vital public systems fail to recognize the year 2000.
The west Texas city of more than 180,000 people didn't test any equipment but rather conducted a drill to see how city personnel responded to mock crises. It was called the first such citywide simulation of the problem in the nation.
City manager Bob Cass, scheduled to testify about the experience Friday before a U.S. Senate committee, said the clear lesson was that cities risk being blindsided if they don't work on contingency plans for the worst-case ''Y2K'' scenario.
''This is the one disaster that we know exactly when it could occur, but it's also the one disaster that we have no idea how bad it will be,'' Cass said. ''One thing that sticks out in my mind is that there is the potential for so many things to go wrong all at once.''
Some computer scientists fear the Y2K bug could cause water systems to shut down, traffic lights to go haywire or life-support systems to fail. When a Chrysler plant ran a Y2K test on a computer system, it was discovered that security doors were stuck closed.
The Lubbock experiment coupled such effects with mock emergencies that would make for an extra-busy night at the police department.
''Our simulation took into account things like slick roads and traffic accidents that would be standard fare for New Year's Eve,'' Cass said.
The test was essentially a role-playing game.
Exactly what or when the ''disasters'' would occur was kept secret until the drills started Wednesday evening. The only thing announced was a four-hour window, starting at 5 p.m., when anything could happen.
Test conductors sent e-mail messages to city officials notifying them of mock natural disasters or failed systems. Emergency officials, including police, fire and utility workers, then had to react. A system was set up to judge response times.
At emergency management headquarters, officials frantically practiced deploying police officers to deal with problems and posted red flags on a giant city map to highlight emergency areas.
The illusion was made complete with reporters summoned for ''news conferences'' and mock reports from a National Weather Service official.
As the drill began, officials were told the city's 911 emergency system had failed. Officials quickly switched over to a county system and broadcast two new police and fire department emergency numbers on television.
Cass said city workers improvised well when unexpected problems arose.
''We pulled together and acted like a team,'' he said. ''A lot of these agencies aren't used to dealing with each other like they had to tonight.''
Mayor Windy Sitton said the test revealed that Lubbock needs to study how to better respond to natural gas shortages. When fake gas outages left hundreds of homes without heat, officials had to devise a plan to set up shelters in the parts of town that still had power |
