Did you catch "60 MINUTES" this past weekend?
CBS Correspondent Steve Kroft narration:
KROFT: "One of the prime concerns for Washington and other communities throughout the country is drinking water. Computerized water and wastewater treatment facilities use embedded computer chips in their control systems. Some of the chips in those water systems have been tested for Y2K, and have failed. Mary Ellen Hanley believes that Washington's water system can run without its computer controls, but she acknowledged she may have to develop contingency plans, for water rationing.
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Anyone remember this from February?
More than thirty million people in the United States are likely to be without
water after January 2000. Nearly two thirds of those affected will be in the big
cities ... This bleak assessment was delivered during an American-Canadian meeting
held on February 22, 1999 to discuss "Cross-Border Y2K Issues." At the meeting it
was revealed that ten percent of large urban water suppliers in the United States are not expected to be Y2K compliant when the Year 2000 date transition occurs.
y2ktimebomb.com
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KROFT: "WHAT WOULD CAUSE WATER TO BE RATIONED?"
HANLEY (Washington's year 2000 Program Manager:): "If we lose power, through
the power grid, as any other state or city around us, including Montgomery County, we
will not be able to function normally, and will have to go to considerable slowdowns that will produce--could produce, uh, rationing, for example."
KROFT: "You're preparing contingency plans that there might be no power?"
HANLEY: "Yes."
KROFT: "For how long?"
HANLEY: "We're looking roughly at what we would consider national averages, uh, one to two weeks."
KROFT: "One to two weeks without power?"
HANLEY: "One to two weeks."
KROFT: "Do you think that's possible?"
HANLEY: "Right now, we don't think it's impossible."
[...]
CBS Correspondent Steve Kroft narration:
"According to Senator Robert Bennett, Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on the Y2k problem, there is still a possibility of economic disruption that could lead to civil unrest. "
KROFT: "What does that mean?"
BENNETT: "If, for example, there is a municipality that is unable to distribute
welfare checks, there could be some civil unrest that could come out of that. If,
uh, if there was a disruption in the food supply, and food didn't get in in a uh,
distributive kind of way--that it was concentrated in one part of the city, but not
in another--that could be a situation that could create some civil unrest."
KROFT: "Do you have contingency plans for that? Does the Federal Government have contingency plans for that?"
BENNETT: "We do not have an overall national federal program. There's some people who, who suggest, 'Gee, this is going to be martial law,' in an effort to try and put down that kind of thing, and they're very scared about it. We simply don't have the machinery for martial law. If it gets to the point where there is that big of an emergency in a particular area, the governor would call out the National Guard and it would be handled at a state level, rather than a federal level."
[...]
CBS Correspondent Steve Kroft narration:
"As for Washington, D.C., Senator Bennett feels that the district is taking a responsible approach with its contingency plans. A survey of county governments across the country, shows that 73 percent of them have no contingency plans at all for Y2k failures, and a report prepared for the U.S. Senate's Y2k Committee says 66 percent of all cities and towns will experience at least one critical computer system failure.
Senator Bennett believes the country has made a lot of progress in the
last six months, but he adds that the country is in uncharted waters, with no historic precedence."
BENNETT: "The dire predictions will probably be fulfilled, but on a sporadic basis, place by place. If you're in one of those places, the fact that the, uh, overall system works is not gonna be very comforting to you. But we would be irresponsible if we were to say, 'There are no problems, everything's under control,' because there's still a lot of work to be done."
HANLEY (Washington D.C.'s year 2000 Program Manager:): "We think there will be some disruptions, and we think they will be localized in many cases, uh, if the supply chain works--that's a big 'if'--if power works, if gas works, if uh, uh--Bell Atlantic works, if people who supply groceries to the inner city work, if pharmaceutical companies make enough pharmaceuticals, if uh, people should hoard things, all of those are big 'ifs,' but I haven't yet seen, since I have been in this position and working with this project, that those groups are ignoring the kinds of concerns that you justifiably are raising that people have."
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Message 9748340
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BTW
SEPTEMBER 9 NATIONWIDE TEST OF ENTIRE AMERICAN
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
"Drill may include reducing planned outages, modified committment of resources, redispatch of generation and transmission loading, cooperation with electric market participants, and staffing of all critical facilities. Simulate system conditions and operating plans for the Y2K transition as closely as possible..."
Message 9568312
Military worries that WVA/VA 765KV grid interconnection planned for 1998 won't be available until 2002, making mid-Atlantic states vulnerable. John, you're a vet, aren't you? Think they're worrying for no reason?
www2.army.mil
SEPTEMBER - MILITARY:
"For the purpose of this memorandum, the Y2K transition date period is defined to be from 1 September 1999 through 31 March 2000 …"
SUBJECT: DoD Year 2000 (Y2K) Support to Civil Authorities
FROM: Deputy Secretary of Defense
army.mil
SEPTEMBER - BANKING:
"they predict that cash problems ...could crop up from as early as September and that they will almost certainly last until the end of February."
Message 9546755
This is what prompted me to create this thread:
Y2K: Is Wall Street & Banking Vulnerable?
Subject 28560
OCTOBER 1
Isn't that when federal government fiscal year begins?
Guess I just see this as a more serious than you do.
Cheryl |
