By The Associated Press LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) -- High-tech doomsday arrived early in this west Texas city.

With just 457 days before the so-called ``Y2K'' bug hits, city officials speeded up the clocks to test their readiness for the chaos many believe could occur if essential city computers fail to recognize the new millennium.

City crews, including police, fire and utility workers, were assembled to simulate massive computer failures in the midst of mock natural disasters. Also planned were computer failures so serious they could cause disasters themselves.

The drills involved test conductors sending e-mail messages to city officials notifying them of problems or failed systems while another system was set up to judge response time.

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.

``This is not about us trying to prove we are ready for this, this is about us seeing the holes that may exist because we've never faced anything like this before,'' said city spokesman Tony Privett said. ``There is absolutely no manual on how to handle this.''

In the hours leading up to the simulated midnight, emergency officials grappled with all sorts of mayhem unrelated to computers.

Mock circumstances included a cold front that blew in from the north, chilling temperatures into the lower teens, icing over streets and causing power outages. Officials responded by ordering workers to sand the streets.

Drill operators also sent a report that a man had drowned in a small pond, and a mock riot broke out at a prison unit just outside of town.

In what may have been the first Y2K-related crisis, the city's 911 emergency system was said to have failed just as the drill period began.

Officials quickly switched over to a county system and broadcast two new police fire department emergency numbers on television.

City officials said the imaginary day of disaster highlighted the need to refine communication between emergency agencies.

It also revealed potential problems with the way natural gas is administered. When fake gas outages left hundreds of homes without heat, officials devised a plan to set up shelters in the parts of town that still had power.

Mayor Windy Sitton said the city needs to study how to better respond to gas shortages.

The city also ran low on police, because of the mock riot and several traffic accidents caused by malfunctioning traffic lights.

Members of Congress have asked officials from Lubbock to testify about the results of their drills in Washington on Friday.

Some computer scientists say the so-called Y2K bug could cause water supplies to shut down, traffic lights to go haywire, and 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. Lubbock City Manager Bob Cass said even such minor failures on a citywide level could paralyze a community.

``We all had better figure out what it will be like to operate in a city where many computers have failed,'' Cass said.

-- Gayla Dunbar (privacy@please.com), October 01, 1998

Answers

Hi Gayla. My husband writes for the local paper and he came across a good article that ran in the Fort Worth Telegram as well. Sounds like you have good awareness down there. I wonder how much of that is due to the Cassandra Project. I'd be proud too.

-- Amy Leone (aleone@amp.com), October 01, 1998.

Yeah, but too bad the Cowboys suck!

-- Favre (Vince@Lombardi.com), October 01, 1998.

I still hate Lombardi and the ~!@#$%^&*()_ Packers for that touchdown Starr made in Green Bay during the Ice Bowl. (This was in the NFL title game before the first Superbowl, for you non-Cowboy football types.)

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), October 01, 1998.

Thanks, Gayla for clipping that article for us here. I just reclipped it and sent it to my city's Manager. Do you suppose the sheet-flapping is visible if they look out their city hall windows?

Ain't life interesting?

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), October 01, 1998.

Robert, Aren't most prople "non-Cowboy" types? You'll have to get over that TD Starr made. It's like the Yankees winning that war a few years back! HA!!!!!

-- Favre (Vince@Lombardi.com), October 01, 1998.

And well you SHOULD be proud, Gayla. Have been contemplating contacting our mayor about Y2K for a little while now, and this will be just the sort of thing to show her. (She and my mother are friends, so maybe she'll listen out of respect for that -- who knows.)

There's also an online article about the Lubbock event at http:/ /www.businesstoday.com/techpages/y2kdoom100198.htm. Found the link at de Jager's Y2K Press Clippings page.

Yeah, I've always liked Texas, tho have never been there. Went to school with guys from Corpus, El Paso, Dinero, Houston, Comfort, Lufkin, San Antone, Austin, Rockport.

And my old tobacco buyer supervisor always had a favorite saying -- "If that ain't the truth, there ain't a cow in Texas!"

-- John Howard (Greenville, NC) (pcdir@prodigy.net), October 01, 1998.

I lived in Lubbock from the time I was 5 until I was 15. I moved back to go to college at 17 and stayed there until I was 25. I still have a lot of family there and visit every so often. Given all of that, let me say one thing:

Damn, have things changed in Lubbock! When I moved out of there a little over 11 years ago, I would have had a hard time believing that city officials could have told you who the city's natural gas supplier was. Now, they can actually coordinate city-wide disaster drills and run effective simulations of potential gas supply problems. I hope they work as closely with the citiy's two electrical suppliers (especially since one of the two suppliers is the city itself). Amazing!

-- Paul Neuhardt (neuhardt@ultranet.com), October 01, 1998.

I watched that &^%@#&*(^#$ Starr touchdown, and most Cowboys games since. I will never, ever, never, ever, never ever get over it. In Georgia they haven't gotten over Sherman, and in Nort and West Texas they never got over the Ice Bowl.

-- Paul Neuhardt (neuhardt@ultranet.com), October 01, 1998.

Hi Gayla,

As a fellow-gal Texan {is that an oximoron (sp?) ?} I too was pleased to hear about the public attention and leadership from a neighboring city. I was disappointed to find out that they were just doing drills, and not actually testing out their systems. What really got to me was the fact that even though it was announced on the news yesterday, there hasn't been any updating on the local news. I monitored the morning news on T.V. and the hourly news on the radio throughout the day. You would think there would have been news reporters from the Austin area there to get video footage or some kind of report!

I guess (in spite of the fact that the Lubbock participants were asked to make a report to the y2k congressional committee on Friday) that the seriousness of the upcoming events STILL goes over most peoples heads!

Texas Terri

-- Terri Symington (TJSYM@AOL.com), October 01, 1998.

BTW...I forgot to mention...I finally found a news report on the search web under Lubbock news. The thing that was disturbing about the report was the sence I got that the officials were reacting as if the actual occurance was only going to be a 24 hour event. I don't know if this is really what they believe, but it certainly gives the reader a false sence of security to think that all they have to do is get through one day of y2k...and then it will all be o.k.

Texas Terri

-- Terri Symington (TJSYM@AOL.com), October 01, 1998.

Terri -

A Texas oximoron (or Texamoron) is properly known as a "longhornamoron", also abbreviated as OK or boomersaurian, but that by itself is a double rendundancy......TAMU '78, (God, has it been that short a time.)

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), October 01, 1998.

Robert,

Is that like a Tuckaseean? What we used to call them people from Kentucky or Tennessee when we were out travellin' on the burley tobacco market in those states. (Not gonna tell ya what they called us.)

-- John Howard (Greenville, NC) (pcdir@prodigy.net), October 01, 1998.

It was actually on the national news tonight w Peter Jennings! Maybe other cities will start taking notice now that the national news is starting to pick up on other stories besides the President's libido!

-- Kitty (kittyfelton@webtv.net), October 01, 1998.

^5 Kitty!

Here's another web link for those who need it to send to friends --

this is a big story -- ht tp://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/100198/1001980013.shtml

-- John Howard (Greenville, NC) (pcdir@prodigy.net), October 02, 1998.

Robert,

<< A Texas oximoron (or Texamoron) is properly known as a "longhornamoron", also abbreviated as OK or boomersaurian, but that by itself is a double rendundancy......TAMU '78, (God, has it been that short a time.) >>

Now, now. Let's not make this a "tea-sippers" vs. Aggies thing. (Go Red Raiders! Our teams may be lousy, but we're persistent as hell. and the education is pretty good.)

Paul.

-- Paul Neuhardt (neuhardt@ultranet.com), October 02, 1998.

Terri,

<< The thing that was disturbing about the report was the sence I got that the officials were reacting as if the actual occurance was only going to be a 24 hour event. >>

I don't think that was the message they intended to convey. It would be nearly impossible to simulate problems over any period longer than a day for several reasons, the biggest of which is that the people involved in the simulations wouldn't be doing the rest of their jobs. This is even more problematic for police, fire and power staff.

By simulating a really bad day (ice storms, riots, power outages and fuel shortages all at once) you have a chance to quickly check out worst-case scenarios. You can test a large number of independent plans all at once, then spend a little time evaluating how you did and where you can improve.

-- Paul Neuhardt (neuhardt@ultranet.com), October 02, 1998.

It's a good start - and the first community level testing/reaction drill I've heard of.

Fantastic. But keep them thinking about other scenarios.

Particularly long losses of phone/satellite/power/water = maybe these though can only be simulated or "talked through" or "walked through" rather than worked through.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), October 04, 1998.