97
DAYS TO GO
as of Sunday, September 26, 1999
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No panic. Just preparation.
From the Chairman
My name is Lloyd Redmond. I worked thirty-three years for our electric cooperative, first as
a lineman and then as a line foreman, and retired in 1997. I have climbed poles in every corner of
this county, in ice storms, in tornado weather, and on more Christmas Eves than my wife Esther
cares to remember. When County Executive Louis McNally asked me last April to chair a citizens'
committee on the Year 2000 problem, I told him I was not a computer man. He said that was the
point. He wanted somebody who had seen the lights go out and come back on, and who wouldn't scare
anybody.
So here we are. The committee is made up of the people who keep this county running: the
emergency management director, the co-op, the water plant, the 911 center, the sheriff, the fire
chiefs, the schools, the banks, the extension office, the churches and the amateur radio club.
We've met every month since April and held three public meetings. This page is where we put what
we've learned, in plain language, so you don't have to take it from a fellow at the flea market
who is selling something.
Here is the short version: the people responsible for your power, water, phones, banks and
emergency services in Ellard County have done their homework. Prepare for New Year's like you'd
prepare for a bad ice storm, and then go to bed. The rest of this page is the long version.
What the "Bug" Is, in One Paragraph
For a long time, computer memory was expensive, so programmers saved space by writing the year
with two digits: 1965 was just "65." That worked fine until the year after 1999, which a computer
like that will read as "00," and might take to mean 1900. A program that figures your age, your
loan interest, or when a bill is due by subtracting one year from another can come up with
nonsense. Some equipment with a little computer chip inside it keeps track of the date too. That
is the whole problem. It isn't a virus and it isn't a conspiracy. It's an old shortcut, and for the
last few years people all over the country have been finding it and fixing it.
Questions & Answers
These are the questions we get most at the public meetings, at church, and at the Co-op
office. The answers come from the people who run those things in our county.
| Question | Answer |
| Will the lights stay on? |
We expect so. The Co-op went through every piece of equipment that has a computer in it: the substation controls, the meter reading, the dispatch radios, the billing system. Lawrence Watkins, who heads engineering and operations there, says they replaced two controllers and the billing software, and tested everything by setting clocks ahead to January 1. Our wholesale power supplier has reported to the Co-op that its plants and lines are ready. And speaking as an old lineman: the wires, poles and transformers that bring power to your house don't know what year it is. A transformer is a coil of wire in a can of oil. |
| Will water come out of the tap? |
Yes. Eric Lewis, the water plant superintendent, replaced the plant's old control computer in June and tested the new one by rolling the date past midnight several times. In August his operators ran the whole plant by hand for an entire shift, just to prove they could. The storage tanks will be full on December 31, and the plant has a backup generator. Keep three days of drinking water anyway, like for any storm. |
| Will 911 work? |
Yes. Myrtle Stimson, our 911 director, had the dispatch software upgraded this spring and it has been tested. The center has its own generator. Please do not call 911 at midnight to see if it works. If a few hundred people do that, the people who really need help can't get through. |
| Is my money safe in the bank? |
Yes. Both banks in the county have sent their customers letters explaining what they've done, and federal bank examiners have been checking every bank in the country on this. Your deposits are insured just like always. Constance Baum, who represents the banks on our committee, says the most dangerous place for your money on New Year's Eve is a coffee can in your closet. Have some cash on hand, the same as before a storm, and leave the rest where it is. |
| Should I buy a generator? |
Not for this. If you already have one, or you need one for medical equipment or livestock, please listen to an old lineman: never run a generator in your house, garage, basement or on a closed-in porch. The exhaust is carbon monoxide and it will kill your family in their sleep. And never plug a generator into a wall outlet to "backfeed" your house. Have an electrician put in a proper transfer switch. Otherwise your generator can send power back out on the line, and the man working on that line thinks it's dead. I have been that man. |
| Should I stock up on gasoline? |
No. Fill up your car before the holiday like you normally would. Please don't store cans of gasoline in your garage or carport. The fire chiefs asked me to put that in bold, so: don't store gasoline. |
| Do I need a year's worth of food? |
No. Three days' worth, the kind you don't have to cook, is plenty. The folks selling freeze-dried food by the bucket and "Y2K survival kits" are selling fear, and fear is expensive. If you've already bought it, that's all right. You'll be ready for the next ice storm. |
| What about my medicine? |
Get your prescriptions refilled a little ahead in December, the same as you would before any holiday when the drugstore might be closed. Don't try to stockpile months of medicine. Ask your pharmacist. |
| Will my home computer, VCR or microwave stop working? |
Your microwave doesn't care what year it is. Your VCR might show the wrong date, and if it is like mine it has been blinking 12:00 since 1988 anyway. An older home computer may show the wrong date, so check with the company that made it or ask at the store where you bought it. Pamela Henderson at the extension office has a handout on this. |
| Will the schools open in January? |
Yes. Milton Foran, Director of Schools, says the buses, the heating systems and the office computers have all been checked, and classes start back on schedule after the Christmas break. |
What Will Probably Happen
Very little. That's the honest answer, and it's the answer of everybody on this committee who
has looked into it. My own prediction for Ellard County on January 1, 2000: a few old cash
registers will print a funny date on a receipt, somebody's office computer will need its clock
reset, a lot of VCRs will blink, and the biggest emergency of the day will be the same as every
New Year's Day: somebody's chimney fire, and somebody who ate too many black-eyed peas.
If something does go wrong, it will most likely be small and local, and it will get fixed,
the way things get fixed after a storm. That's what all these folks are here for.
The best thing you can do: get ready like you would for an ice storm. We put together a
one-page Family Readiness Checklist you can print out and put
on the refrigerator. And check on your neighbors, especially the older ones and the ones who live
alone. That's the most important item on the list.
New Year's Eve in Ellard County
| Fire halls | All nine volunteer fire halls will be open and staffed from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., with radios, coffee and a warm room. If you can't reach anybody by phone, go to your nearest fire hall. Chief Laurence Pena has the schedule. |
| Emergency center | Charles Browne, our Emergency Management director, will open the emergency operations center in the courthouse basement at 8:00 p.m., with the County Executive, the sheriff, the Co-op, the water plant and the road department all in one room until morning. This is the same thing we do for a big storm. |
| Amateur radio | The county's ham radio club will be on the air all night, with operators at the courthouse and at the fire halls, as a backup to the phones and the county radios. Keith Benbow, the club president, says they'd be up anyway. |
| Sheriff's office | Sheriff Philip Crawford will have extra deputies on the road, as on every New Year's Eve. He asks everybody to please not shoot guns into the air at midnight. What goes up comes down. |
| Co-op crews | On standby at the Co-op barns, like every holiday. A few of them would rather be home. I know the feeling. |
| Churches | Many of our churches will hold watch-night services, as some of them have every New Year's Eve for as long as anybody can remember. Brother Larry Greenman of the ministerial association says all are welcome, and that's a fine way to see in the new year. |
Two Other Dates: September 9 and February 29
September 9, 1999 (9/9/99) came and went without a peep. Some old programs used "9999"
as a signal for "end of the list," and there was some worry that the date 9/9/99 would confuse
them. Our committee members watched their systems that day. Nothing happened at the Co-op, the
water plant, the 911 center or the banks. The only report I got was from a Co-op meter reader who
asked me if it was over yet. I told him no, but it was a good practice run.
February 29, 2000. Most years that end in 00 are not leap years. The rule is that a
century year is only a leap year if it can be divided by 400. 1900 wasn't one. 2000 is. Some
computer programs may not know that and may jump straight from February 28 to March 1. The
committee will keep an eye on things through leap day and send a note to the paper if anything
turns up. We don't expect much.
Next Public Meeting
Tuesday, October 19, 7:00 p.m.
Ellard County High School cafeteria
Reports from every committee member, the New Year's Eve plan in detail, and as many
questions as you've got. Coffee and cookies from the extension homemakers. Bring your neighbors.
Minutes of past meetings are here.
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More Reading
If you want a deeper look than ours, Gordon Hale, a systems analyst who has been fixing this
problem for a living since 1997, has written a calm, informed page called
The Y2K Watch: 100 Days to Go, about what the
Year 2000 problem is and isn't. He explains the computer end of it better than I can, and he
agrees with us about the freeze-dried food.
Questions for the committee? Write to us at
[email protected].
Lloyd answers the e-mail himself, a little slowly, at the kitchen table.
   
visits since this page went up in May 1999
Last updated Sunday, September 26, 1999
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