Contingency and Consequence Management Planning for Year 2000 Conversion

(available in .PDF format at: http://www.fema.gov/y2k/ccmp.htm

A Guide for State and Local Emergency Managers

FOREWORD

Year 2000 (Y2K) conversion presents the emergency management community with a unique challenge. However, the Y2K problem will only be as serious as we, as a nation, allow it to become. It is primarily a technological problem with well-known solutions. America has demonstrated time and again that it can handle disasters with courage and resolve. Based on current assessments, Y2K need not result in major disruptions.

Yet, the complexity and inter-relationships of the automated systems supporting our daily life, the global reach of some systems, and the varying rates at which Y2K repairs are being made, make it difficult to accurately predict all the possible Y2K situations we may encounter. With less than a year to go until the century date change occurs, the emergency management community must prepare to minimize the potential impacts of Y2K problems on public safety and health. This Guide is intended to assist in that effort.

Y2K conversion is an all-encompassing problem with the potential for widespread, multiple incidents occurring simultaneously. However, the all-hazards practices and techniques emergency managers routinely use for other disasters and emergencies should well serve our nation in planning for the potential consequences of Y2K conversion.

Emergency Operation Plans, supplemented by the material suggested in this Guide, should form an effective basis for Y2K contingency planning and consequence management for States and local governments. The Federal Response Plan, with its special Y2K Operations Supplement, will be the basis for providing Federal assistance to States should there be any Presidentially declared emergencies resulting from Y2K conversion.

This guide is meant to assist States and local governments in preparing Y2K contingency and consequence management plans. It provides information on:

identifying potential problems and risk assessment; keeping the emergency management organization operational; informing and assisting the public; and developing and implementing Y2K consequence management plans.

I particularly wish to thank the National Emergency Management Association and the International Association of Emergency Managers for their assistance in preparing this Guide. Numerous other sources were used and the principal ones are cited herein.

This Guide is part of FEMA's broad Y2K preparedness and outreach strategy. FEMA is making sure that its own mission-critical systems are Y2K compliant. We are also working with other Federal, State, local, business and volunteer partners to make sure the Emergency Services Sector throughout the nation is adequately prepared.

A little preparedness, a lot of facts, and a dose of common sense will go a long way toward reducing the risk and easing minds regarding Y2K.

I hope you will find the guide useful, practical, and timely.

James L. Witt Director

-- (Busy@the.top), February 22, 1999

Answers

Good one! Hotlink:

http://www.fema.gov/y2k/ ccmp.htm

Full Document, 427 KByte PDF Document (59 Pages)

http://www.fema.gov/y2k/ ccmp_fl.pdf

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), February 22, 1999.

Compare this FEMA document with the facts reported in Conflicting messages trickling down through state & local government

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be to explain the contradictions here.

"Never ascribe to malice the fruits of incompetence." (As someone aptly posted earlier.)

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), February 23, 1999.