I just called a guy that works at the utility plant. I had asked him several months ago what he thought of Y2k. He did not know what I was talking about. I gave him some information I printed out and had not heard from him. I called today to see how the plant was coming along on becoming compliant. I read the SEC Report and it looked like Kentrucky Utlilites might be a little behind. My friend said no one talked about Y2k at the plant and he could not see that anything out of the ordinary being done. I asked if he had talked to the supervisors about Y2k and he said they did not know much about it either. He seemed to think it was not a big deal and what he had heard was it was not going to take long to fix. In my electric bill this month was an insert. One sentence did not reassure me very much. "While we beleive we are responsibly addressing the Y2k issue, there is no assurance that our efforts will be suffient due to the interdependent nature of our business." It seems to me part of fixing the problem would be educating the employees about Y2k, especially while they are suppose to be fixing the problem.>My earlier post reflected that I am depressed. I am now depressed and confused.

-- Linda A. (adahi@muhlon.com), January 10, 1999

Answers

Linda, I had a similar experience Friday. We went to a very large hospital in the inner city which is part of a large hospital chain (not where we worked). We spoke to one of the long-standing employees in an administrative position who uses computers there extensively and is in charge of an important program. She HAD NEVER HEARD OF Y2K. She looked at us as if we were aliens and sort of ushered us out pityingly after we told her about it. Her comment: "Nothing like that could ever happen. We have a computer support department and they've never mentioned it so you must be spreading some crazy rumor. Nothing like that exists." {Year 2000 rollover problem possibilities}. She thinks we're outed nutsos coming out of luna-ville.

What does this say about the hospital's concern for employees / patients? No educational outreach, nada. This is a case where we wish we had $$ to send Paul Milne there to give a presentation. Shock treatment would be good for them.

What a nasty little surly-prize many ppl are in for. Surprise! Your life as you knew it is GONE.

Ashton & Leska in Cascadia, where the hospitals are toast

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-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), January 10, 1999.

Because the electric grid is all intertied, all it takes is for one glitch to disrupt the whole system. We have seen several instances the past few years that proves this. I suppose as time goes on we will see more disclaimers from our electric supplier that they cannot guarantee that the electricity will stay on, so be prepared.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), January 10, 1999.

The electric grid most certainly is interdependent, so to speak. In the Northridge earthquake in CA in 1/94, just after the shaking stopped, I was clinging to a doorframe looking out into the 4:30am "night." (Every siren, building alarm, and dog in the city making massive noise, not counting buildings creaking and people screaming.) And then it went totally black, black beyond what a city girl has ever really known. (Psychologically disturbing, to say the least.) And then green and blue lightning lit up the sky -- really bizarre and amazing and frightening. That was the transformers blowing out.

Gee, I thought, it knocked out our power.

No. It knocked out a lot of power, even a long way away. It knocked out power to most of the West coast, to 10 states and part of Canada. That was just for one earthquake way over in southern California. I'd like someone to try and convince those people in Canada who lost power that the grid isn't fragile. That transformers overloading and blowing out halfway across the continent can't affect them.

And if you read the electric utilities stuff (I hate to mention this), it indicates that this blowing-out effect can happen when the demand overwhelms the supply. Meaning: when people are trying to use more power than the power company has, it isn't like it just goes to the first people who flipped the switch and the last ones get nothing. Apparently in at least some cases, it overloads the system and can take part (or all in worst case) of the system down. (I'm no expert on this. Just repeating something I read. Could be wrong.)

Assuming the power is on, and trains work, and the phones are operating, and the gas stations are open, they can just call someone to order spare parts, get delivery, and then drive over and fix that darn problem. Of course if all those "if's" aren't in place, well... it could be a worrisome.

PJ

-- PJ Gaenir (fire@zmatrix.com), January 10, 1999.

" In the Northridge earthquake in CA in 1/94, just after the shaking stopped, I was clinging to a doorframe looking out into the 4:30am "night." (Every siren, building alarm, and dog in the city making massive noise, not counting buildings creaking and people screaming.) And then it went totally black, black beyond what a city girl has ever really known. (Psychologically disturbing, to say the least.) And then green and blue lightning lit up the sky -- really bizarre and amazing and frightening. That was the transformers blowing out. " Wow! PJ, what an excellent description of earthquake and effect!

We left L.A. in '85, so I missed all the recent action. However, as Ashton and Leska have noted about Cascadia, they're due for a quake -- and here in the midwest, seismologists have been promising us a whale of a shaker from New Madrid (which ought to affect Memphis, Knoxville, St. Lou, and possibly even Chicago). Heard today on the news that Massachusetts (of all places!) had a small quake!

At the risk of heaping worry upon worry, whatja gonna do if it happens post-y2k? If y2k hasn't killed electricity, the quake probably will -- and if y2k did cause problems, repairs will be just that much harder. Think: broken water mains. Think: fires (remember San Francisco and Kobe).

Quakes are infrequent, and their occurrance coinciding with y2k effects is probably a longshot......

But.....

Anita E.

-- Anita Evangelista (ale@townsqr.com), January 10, 1999.

January 17 is a big date for monster earthquakes. January 17, 1700, 9:27/p, an 8``9 hit Cascadia, plunged the coast down 30 feet, caused killer tsunamis that wiped out parts of Japan. Not to mention flattening forests on West Coast of USA.

January 17, Northridge quake. Exactly a year later, January 17, Kobe quake. January 17, 2000? Blizzards, Ice Storms, floods, freezes, who knows what will complicate our glitch glue. Rock 'n roll, mounting toll.

Last couple months, quakes all over the map. See:

Current Seismic Events

A major difference in an earthquake is the human reaction. People are in shock and see it as "An Act Of God." They are not so angry and are not looking for somebody to blame.

Is your city proud to have installed natural gas lines everywhere for "clean efficient inexpensive" fuel? When those snap & crack, kaboom! TOAST

Anita Evangelista, thinking of it all happening at once -- Hollywood movie time! My mind can't stretch that far. Too Biblical. Aaaiiieee.

Ashton & Leska in Cascadia, rattled by the thought

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-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), January 10, 1999.

We heard that the Madrid quake rang bells in Boston and reversed the flow of the Mississippi, changed its course permanently. Maybe if that happened to DC *now* it would get their attention? How about a waker quaker that jolts 'em enough to urge preparation?

If a hacker brought down the computer grid this summer, would he be seen as a saving prophet for showing ppl how disruptive an experience this could be? Do you think there's any geeks out there with a messiah complex? (besides our own resident bunch ;)

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-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), January 10, 1999.

First, Was the utility employee an IT person or just an employee who worked at a desk etc???? The IT people don't go around telling eveybody every step they make. That's silly.

Second, the hospital. They have a computer support group. Maybe their system is new enough that they are on top of things. The maintenance dept handles the check for the ivacs etc.

-- Moore Dinty moore (not@thistime.com), January 10, 1999.

Regarding the Northridge quake...

I'm a native Californian who used to love a little shake now and then.

Northridge was the first quake that I thought could kill me. It was that terrible. It felt like our whole house was picked up, shaken and dropped. Mind you, I am at least 30 miles from Northridge. The whole area lost power.

Leska, I think that quake actually changed the course of the Mississipi by 100 miles and killed many. That was when, about the turn of the century?

Mike ===============================================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), January 10, 1999.

Mike,

The quakes you're talking about were in 1811 and 1812.

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), January 11, 1999.

Here's a link to newspaper accounts of the time on those Mississippi Valley Earthquakes of 1811-1812:

http://www.eas.slu.edu/Earthquake_Center/Nuttli.1973/nuttli-73- app.html

And here's an earthquake risk map for the eastern half of the U.S.:

http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/eq/hazmaps/050pga.gif

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), January 11, 1999.

Already described my quake experience on this thread:

The Energy Of Emotions -- Y2K Lessons From L.A.

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

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), January 11, 1999.

MDM, this is a small plant. There have been no new faces working at the plant. The guy I spoke with in not IT but has been at this plant for 15+ years. Everyone knows everyone, everyone knows the plant, etc. He said no one is working on anything related to Y2k.

-- Linda A. (adahi@muhlon.com), January 12, 1999.