Kentucky: "State agencies prepare for Y2K - From cults to computers, there's a plan"

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Articles about Y2K are almost never on the front page of The Courier-Journal. This article is at the very top of the front page of December 21st edition of the C-J:

http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/1999/9912/21/991221stat.html

[snip]

Even though officials said they are confident that there will be electrical power and telephone services, they've prepared for the worst. Kentucky State Police posts and emergency dispatch centers have been equipped with diesel-powered generators and older high-frequency radios, which don't use computer chips.

AND THERE

will be a command post for state emergency officials at the Emergency Operators Center at the Boone National Guard Center in Frankfort. Gov. Paul Patton is expected to stop in on New Year's Eve to check on things at the center, which will be staffed around the clock by officials from about a dozen state agencies, the American Red Cross, the National Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Fourteen regional offices around the state will stay in phone or radio contact with all 120 of the state's county emergency management directors. The state's 47 National Guard armories will be staffed and there will be a mobile radio unit in each of the state's 120 counties. About 400 guardsmen will be on active duty on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, said Lt. Col. Phil Miller, a guard spokesman.

[snip]

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), December 21, 1999

Answers

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

Tuesday, Dec. 21, 1999

State agencies prepare for Y2K

From cults to computers, there's a plan

By MICHAEL QUINLAN, The Courier-Journal

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- State emergency response teams, government officials, state police and National Guard units across the commonwealth will be on duty New Year's Eve and New Year's Day to respond to any problems caused by computer failures or civil disobedience linked to the coming of the year 2000.

"We're preparing for this just as we would a significant winter storm event," said Bob Stephens, an operations manager with the state Division of Emergency Management. "There's probably a better chance that we'll be dealing with bad weather problems than we will with anything to do with the millennium."

Aside from the weather, Stephens said he's far more concerned about trouble caused by reactionary groups than he is about problems from the Y2K bug.

The state has spent more than $41 million upgrading equipment and making sure that its computers will not fail, and that services and public safety will not be affected, Stephens said. He added that the computer systems that handle the state's electricity and telephone services have been tested and backup plans are in place.

The unknown factor is whether cults, political fanatics or hate groups will see what they consider the end of the millennium as an opportunity to cause a disturbance, Stephens said. "I don't want to bring too much undue attention to this, but it is something we have to be aware of as a possible threat."

Lt. Kevin Payne, spokesman for the Kentucky State Police, said state troopers will be working 12-hour shifts from New Year's Eve until "several days afterward."

Payne said all troopers underwent their annual riot-control training just a few weeks ago.

"We're not anticipating any problems, it's just a matter of being prepared," Payne said. "Most likely we're just going to have a lot of bored troopers out there concentrating on DUIs."

Ron Padgett, executive director of the Division of Emergency Management, said his staff is having to "dance the fine line between appropriate readiness and inappropriate alarm."

Even though officials said they are confident that there will be electrical power and telephone services, they've prepared for the worst. Kentucky State Police posts and emergency dispatch centers have been equipped with diesel-powered generators and older high- frequency radios, which don't use computer chips.

AND THERE

will be a command post for state emergency officials at the Emergency Operators Center at the Boone National Guard Center in Frankfort. Gov. Paul Patton is expected to stop in on New Year's Eve to check on things at the center, which will be staffed around the clock by officials from about a dozen state agencies, the American Red Cross, the National Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Fourteen regional offices around the state will stay in phone or radio contact with all 120 of the state's county emergency management directors. The state's 47 National Guard armories will be staffed and there will be a mobile radio unit in each of the state's 120 counties. About 400 guardsmen will be on active duty on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, said Lt. Col. Phil Miller, a guard spokesman.

"OUR MOBILE

teams in each county will have high-frequency radios and will be able to stay in contact with us here (in Frankfort) even if phone lines are down," Miller said. "We'll be troubleshooting. If we haven't gotten a report in from Pulaski County emergency services, we'll send someone down there and find out what's the problem."

In addition to the high-frequency radios, the guardsmen can communicate over a radio satellite system that has checked out as Y2K compliant. Miller said the National Guard did a dry run of the New Year's operation in November and had no problems.

Stephens said there could be some minor computer glitches that might affect electrical power in some small areas, but he said the state should not have any major problems because the electrical systems that supply power to Kentucky are run from computers that have been programmed to believe that it is the year 2004.

And while Stephens said he expected no problems with the state's telephone system, he cautioned the public against calling 911 unless it's a true emergency.

"There are some people out there who are going to call 911 at midnight just to see if it's working and all that's going to do is tie up the lines," Stephens said. "Most 911 dispatches only have about 20 lines."

KENTUCKY SPENT

more than $3 million upgrading the computers used by its court system and more than $38 million on the computers used by state government that do such things as print checks for state workers, keep track of Medicaid payments and child-care subsidies, and make sure that food stamps are issued.

Aldona Valicenti, chief information officer of the governor's office of technology, said the state's computer systems are in good shape. The state has been working on the problem for three years. While it ran into some problems -- like potential Y2K problems in the state's computerized child-care payment system that were found this summer -- all have been corrected, she said.

After changing the date codes in its computers, the state tested the corrected systems by running a Y2K simulation. As an added measure, the state hired a private firm to test the 106 computer systems that are regarded as critical. In all, the state has more than 400 computer systems.

"We got independent validation and verification on those 106 systems," Valicenti said. "We sent them to a third party -- not part of state government -- that has a huge computer environment that can pretend it's the year 2000 or 2002 or 2004."

When told of the steps taken by the state, Michael Ross, of Louisville's Absolute Networking Systems Inc., which helps businesses deal with the Y2K bug, said, "I don't believe there is much more you can do than that."

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-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), December 21, 1999.


I live in Kentucky. Now I feel so much better!!!!

What a joke....

My 2-3 years of food, two generators, propane, garden, greenhouse, etc. are looking better all the time for Y2K. My stash also looks really good for a sneak nuclear attack and the first 1/2 of the tribulation.

God's still on the throne too..... I feel really blessed.

-- Vernon Hale (create@premiernet.net), December 21, 1999.


Hmmmm....wonder when was the last time that Kentucky spent $41 million preparing for a winter storm "event"...????

-- Norm Harrold (nharrold@tymewyse.com), December 21, 1999.

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