Destined to be a classic line...

...contingency plans had been devised and tested just in case the computers did go kaplooey.

;-D

Diane

Apocalypse not now, The City tells residents
Michael Dougan
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
Nov. 21, 1999
)1999 San Francisco Examiner

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/1999/11/21/METRO7041.dtl

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

Authorities promise that essential services will work on Jan. 1 despite Y2K fears

Here's what won't happen in San Francisco at midnight on New Year's Eve: 911 won't go unanswered, police and fire radios won't lapse into silence, landing airplanes won't crash into the control tower, traffic signals won't switch to black, water taps won't run dry. That's what city officials want residents to know.

They don't want citizens to fear all the things depicted in "Y2K," an NBC disaster movie airing Sunday that The City's Year 2000 compliance experts deem irresponsible.

"We don't expect massive disruptions, but Y2K is not a myth ," said Christiane Hayashi, communications manager for San Francisco's Y2K Project Management Office, a temporary agency with six full-time employees, three primary contractors and several consulting engineers.

They have been asked to find solutions to potentially disastrous problems that could arise when the year 2000 arrives and city computers are confused by the two zeros at the end, throwing crucial systems into disorder.

"Y2K is real," said Hayashi. "There may be some effects that people will notice. It's just not going to be drastic - certainly not as drastic as the movie."

In the film, apocalyptic horrors stem from a global collapse of computer systems. But San Francisco's city government worked intensely to ensure that computers in 14 critical departments will function smoothly when the cosmic odometer rolls over on Jan. 1, Hayashi said.

She said outside engineers had been paid to verify that each department was as ready as it claimed to be. "We're not content to just assume that if we think it's going to work, it's going to work," she said, adding that contingency plans had been devised and tested just in case the computers did go kaplooey.

"We feel really good about that," she said. "We feel that we've been able to provide that extra level of assurance."

Some city functions judged non-critical might still encounter Y2K problems, she said. But these could be as insignificant as the wrong dates on computer-generated correspondence.

Hayashi's own job has been to convince citizens that they can trust in their city's most important services over the transition period. She said she'd noticed the public's anxiety being dispelled in recent months.

"They have heard a lot of horror stories over the last year . . ." she said. "Those horror stories were not unrealistic a year ago."

She worried that, on Dec. 31, people might panic if they heard of disasters in some countries considered ill-prepared, such as the former Soviet republics, or if something as minor as flickering lights caused frightened residents to jam the 911 lines.

So, as the hour approaches on the last day of the year, her program will staff an information center to monitor events worldwide and stem rumors in The City, she said.

The 14 departments considered Y2K compliant are: police, sheriff's office, fire, public health, human services, the Municipal Railway, the San Francisco airport, parking and traffic, the mayor's Office of Emergency Services, the Public Utilities Commission, telecommunications and information services, purchasing, real estate and public works.

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

Answers

The Kaplooey line is indeed pretty amusing, but my personal fave (that I keep seeing everywhere) is "We don't expect massive disruptions". "Oops, sorry, no phone? No lights? Well, we certainly didn't EXPECT that..."

-- Ludi (ludi@rollin.com), November 22, 1999.

---depends on what your definitions of "massive" and "disruptions" are, i guess. ---gotta hand it to all these corporate and civil bureaucraps. they all get a lesson in creative fiction, ad libbing, and stand up comedy, and they get paid for it! hawhawhawhawhawhawhawhaw

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), November 22, 1999.

I love these schizophrenic articles that report on all the things that COULD happen, but then state that such things WON'T happen. I guess the whole is not equal to the sum of the parts....

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), November 22, 1999.