Last night one of the Louisville, Kentucky stations aired a Y2K program. I can't begin to detail all of the stupidities, but you've seen them before. "Check your VCRs and other appliances for compliance." "Here's what an MRE looks like, and the cookie tastes pretty good." "Have three days' supply of food and water." Of course they interviewed a banker who told horror stories about foolish people taking money out of the bank and being robbed. He insisted it was vitally important to keep your money in the bank. Each segment started with a brief "man-on-the-street" interview, showing an everyday person's opinion on Y2K. One claimed it had all been fixed and the stories were part of a hoax intended to scare us. The others said they were pretty sure everything would be OK. In the middle part of the one-hour program was a story about the future of the local airport, with absolutely no connection whatsoever to Y2K. I guess they had to pad the program because there just wasn't enough to say about Y2K. Shameful negligence on the part of the media.

-- Pearlie Sweetcake (storestuff@home.now), June 23, 1999

Answers

I saw that and thought it was the most stupid thing I ever saw! "You won't need to stock up on any food- but a three day supply of MRE's isn't a bad idea" "you won't be without power but here's some tips on buying a generator" then they went to a 16 year old boy at Home Depot for his input on if the power would go out. The head of Kentucky's emergency preparedness something or another was showing his bug out bag and all his preps and saying you won't need this. Then he showed his cash and warned people not to pull all their money out of the bank. I had to turn it off and leave the house for awhile, it just made me sick!

-- Johnny (JLJTM@BELLSOUTH.NET), June 23, 1999.

I just looked at the TV section from yesterday's paper. It was a one hour program from 8 to 9 PM called "Kentuckiana 2000: Are We Prepared?" It sounds as if I didn't miss much.

That particular TV station had done a decent job in the past on Y2K when it mentioned the suggestions of the American Red Cross on its Louisville Tonight program, including having extra cash on hand.

I went to the Community Conversation in Frankfort on June 17th. A man there from the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office personally told me during a break that his office had spent $200,000 on Y2K. I was relieved to hear that, since I'd never heard anything else about either the county or city addressing Y2K.

A representitive there from LG&E was willing to say both how much it had budgeted for Y2K and how much it had spent so far. That was encouraging to me. She also said chips had been shown not to be a problem in electrical transmission/distribution.

The BellSouth representitive only mentioned the total amount they expected to eventually spend, but did claim that their switches would all be replaced by the end of this month. BellSouth, the rep said, had been working on Y2K since 1995.

The representitive there from Humana said it started working on Y2K in 1996, but was pretty vague other than that.

Someone representing a local firm called Strategia was especially eager to assure those in attendance and said so. Strategia apparently does some Y2K consulting. The rep said that they had found no problems when testing chips at water companies. He didn't say whether he was talking about the Louisville Water Company or not, though.

John Koskinen was made a Kentucky Colonel at the Community Conversation in Frankfort...

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), June 23, 1999.

Link if you are like me I'm sure you know more than a few Colonels. Did you read about the meeting downtown this past Saturday? I read the article after the meeting started then on Sunday it said only 5 showed up mostly wanting to know about elevators working at retirement homes.

Are you at ease with what LG&E, MSD, Louisville Water and the rest of town are doing?

-- Johnny (JLJTM@BELLSOUTH.NET), June 23, 1999.

Johnny,

Am I at ease with what LG&E, MSD, the Louisville Water Co. and the rest of the town are doing? No.

County and city government have been silent about Y2K compared with Cincinnati and Indianapolis. I know from the Courier that LG&E and the Louisville Water Company are working on Y2K, but don't know much about their progress. A friend of mine who should know something about LG&E says it was last year when LG&E's remediation efforts kicked into high gear.

I haven't heard anything about MSD's efforts. I have read that the Louisville Water Company plans to fill the Crescent Hill Water Reservoir to the brim on December 31st.

There isn't enough hard information available for me to be comfortable. The scraps of compliance information I do hear I take with a grain of salt, since I can tell we're in a major spin cycle right now. You should have heard John Koskinen speak at the Community Conversation in Frankfort. The man can spin!

A Kentucky bank chain was issued an award by the state at the Community Conversation in Frankfort for its numerous educational outreach programs to inform the public about Y2K. Somehow I doubt that the bank's program ever brought up the supply chain issue or the domino effect. Koskinen was made a Kentucky Colonel, but we all know what it takes (or doesn't take) to become one.

I'm still prepping for Y2K a little bit each week. Even if we do have electricity and water on January 1st, there could be shortages next year. I do take utility issues seriously, because the house my parents lived in during the April 1974 tornado was without power for a full week. I learned from my dad to always be prepared.

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), June 23, 1999.

For some reason I am at ease with LG&E, maybe its just me wanting to think they will be okay. MSD now they are the sneaky ones. They pop up all over town under the cover of dark like they are secret agents or something. I hadn't heard that about the Res. being filled up. I was under the assumption all our water came from the Ohio.

I live in Lyndon and last June we lost power for a week. It wasn't that bad, but it gave me the kick in the pants I needed to start preparing for worse.

Have you read anything about the flood gates? Everytime I see them going up It seems like its all manual but I don't know. That is what I worry about some disaster like a flood happening and no way to put the gates up.

-- Johnny (JLJTM@BELLSOUTH.NET), June 23, 1999.

Johnny,

I haven't heard anything about the flood gates. I always thought, though, that it's all done manually.

The city's water does come from the Ohio, but there are two 55- million gallon tanks in Crescent Hill that hold the river water for a day or so as the first step in the water treatment process. The reservoir there is used to allow the larger particles in the water to settle to the bottom before other processing takes place.

I've got to go right now, but here's a link to my impressions of the Community Conversation in Frankfort:

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000yTU

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), June 23, 1999.

Sounds pretty lame to me also. But, I did catch a good talk show program on y2k going thru Cincinatti Ohio today. Host was Ken Hamblin? Anyone else hear it???

-- Moore Dinty moore (not@thistime.com), June 24, 1999.

Johnny,

In case you never got to see it, here are some snips from a Courier article from January about Kentucky cities:

http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/1999/9901/19/990119comp.html

Tuesday, January 19, 1999

[snip]

Small Kentucky cities say they'll be ready for 2000

Computers run sewage plants and 911 systems

By JOSEPH GERTH, The Courier-Journal

Anchorage City Hall might look like a civil-defense shelter next Jan. 1. Anchorage, a small city in eastern Jefferson County, is preparing for the millennium bug to hit -- as are many small communities around the state. The city administrator, J. Fred Miller IV, said officials are taking it seriously.

They'll have fuel stored for police cars, backup generators to power government offices, additional cash on hand and maybe fresh water stored.

The city even has an AM radio transmitter to communicate with residents in an emergency -- all in case computers shut down, leaving cities unable to provide basic services.

Small cities and counties across the state have joined in the race to beat what is known as "the millennium bug" (although the new millennium itself will begin Jan. 1, 2001 -- not the first day of 2000) and "the Y2K crisis," which experts fear will affect computers when the year 2000 hits.

[snip]

Hazard has already upgraded much of its computer software and hopes to have all of its computer systems ready for the new year shortly. It has cost the city less than $1,000, largely because much of its computer equipment is fairly new and was already geared for 2000.

Still, some warn the problem could extend beyond computers that process records at city hall.

It could affect communication systems, sewage- and water-treatment plants that use computer chips, and practically anything else controlled by a computer. It could even disable some heating and air- conditioning units that are computer-controlled. So agencies that normally deal with disasters such as floods and tornadoes -- including the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Red Cross -- are dispensing information about Y2K.

The Red Cross recommends that people stock up on supplies such as food and fresh water, fill cars with gasoline and have extra cash on hand just before the arrival of 2000.

Governments with new computer equipment are better off than others because much of their equipment was built to handle the change. Cities that provide few services probably have few concerns as well.

But local governments must make sure that tax and payroll information is stored on computers that will keep working in 2000. They must make sure 911 emergency systems operate correctly, that police can communicate and that water- and sewage-treatment plants work properly.

The Kentucky Association of Counties and the Kentucky League of Cities have been trying to drive home the point for several months now -- urging their members to prepare.

The Wall Street Journal recently said that Kentucky state government, which claims to have completed 72 percent of work on Y2K, ranked in the top 10 of state governments in preparedness. Indiana, which has completed only 14 percent, ranks in the bottom 10.

But no one knows exactly how well local governments in Kentucky are prepared. The League of Cities, which has sponsored one workshop on Y2K and has two others planned, has surveyed member cities but has received only about 55 responses. The results have not been tabulated yet.

A national disaster official recently warned small governments to get busy getting ready for 2000 -- if they aren't already.

"Generally states and the larger local governments are aware of and making some progress toward resolving Y2K issues. However, many smaller local governments, as well as some state and territorial governments, seem not to be aware of the problem," FEMA's deputy director, Mike Walker, said in a recent news release. "Clearly the most serious potential for problems is at the local level, and this is what we are concerned about."

[snip]

Jeffersontown, in Jefferson County, has been ready for 2000 since late 1997, according to Chris Hardin, who runs its computer system. He said the city had to spend about $50,000 to replace software and some hardware that the city has used since the early 1980s. The city is also making paper copies of all of its records stored on computer just in case. But Hardin said he's more worried about whether LG&E can continue to provide electricity. "Our computers are ready to go, but you got to have power to run them," he said.

LG&E and Kentucky Utilities, which together serve 800,000 Kentucky customers, think all of their critical systems will be ready by the third quarter of 1999. LG&E has posted a notice on its World Wide Web page to reassure its customers.

"While the Company can make no guarantees about what may occur on January 1, 2000, or beyond, senior management believes that the Y2K team is positioning the Company's business operations for a smooth transition into the next century," it says.

In Calvert City, population 2,531, officials are trying to make sure that computer systems and police radios will work and are hoping that there is no blackout.

Mayor Lynn Jones said many cities had done little when he attended a League of Cities meeting last fall, but he thinks they are now taking the problem more seriously.

But some fear that governments are not taking the problem seriously enough.

When a national group of city administrators held a teleconference based in Washington last fall to discuss the issue, only three or four people showed up at the University of Louisville's Shelby Campus to take part in the discussion.

"It was a well-put-together program, but nobody came," said James Graham, director of U of L's Telecommunication Research Center. "Small metropolitan communities are the ones that really need this sort of thing, but I feel like there is a lack of understanding." It's also a problem in the private sector, Graham said. "We've been doing outreach programs for the past year that are dismally attended," he said.

Concerned that local governments are moving too slowly, the center, which usually works with business and industry, has recently reached out to governments in hopes of providing technical assistance.

Aldona Valicenti, the state's chief information officer and the head of Kentucky's Year 2000 program, said it may be too late for many governments to make sure all their computer equipment can deal with Y2K.

Instead, she said, governments need to determine what services are most critical and focus on them. Less important problems can be solved later.

Valicenti said people in government appear to be realizing they must get to work quickly on the problem.

"I can only judge from the level of interest, and the level of interest has increased tremendously in the past few months," she said. "But if you're just waking up in January 1999 and saying, 'I have a problem,' I think you're behind and may have some real problems."

[snip]

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), June 24, 1999.