The medical director of my husband's clinic informed him this a.m. that Longview TX was experiencing a city wide sewage problem, especially with sewage coming back up with toilet flush. This has ongoing since Saturday 01 January 2000. Also, for a few hours after roll-over there was interruption in water service. The medical director's parents live in Longview. I have no reason to doubt her word or that of her parents. I have not heard anything about this on any news service. This type of "glitch" is certainly an endagerment to the health of the citizens of a whole city. Any one have any leads on this? This is a perfect example of the many "glitches" we will NOT hear about. granny-TX

-- granny (westamyx@bigfoot.com), January 04, 2000

Answers

Well, Granny, I can 'doom' with the best of 'em, but I'm sitting at my desk in my office in Longview right now and this is news to me.

Ditto yesterday.

I will, however, call the city manager and ask him about this. We know each other pretty well, and he'll tell me the truth, I think.

-- Vic (Rdrunner@internetwork.net), January 04, 2000.

http://www.news- journal.com/auto/feed/news/local/2000/01/04/946965436.09635.8527.0063. html

News: Local

City, utilities find no Y2K woe By Jo Lee Ferguson The Y2K bug's bark continued to be worse than its bite Monday.

Local government offices, utility companies, banks and other businesses returned to work full time Monday and reported that the Year 2000 date change was still a nonevent. But officials said they will continue monitoring their systems for potential problems.

"The most interesting thing that happened was it was a nonevent, and that's what we wanted it to be," said Longview Community Relations Manager Victoria LaFollett.

Southwestern Electric Power Co., Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., local banks, Gregg County and the city of Longview all reported no major problems following the date change. But officials said that does not mean that the millions of dollars and years spent preparing for the event were unneeded.

"Because we did all those things, nothing happened," LaFollett said. "If we had failed to make the necessary changes, if we had failed to update our system, then we could have possibly had problems."

If there had been any problems, local government employees and businesses were ready to respond.

Gregg County Information Services Director Cindy Romines said courthouse systems handled the date change as expected. A system-wide computer changeover coincided with Y2K preparations, allowing crews to knock out both challenges at once.

"Everything just went beautifully," Romines said, describing monitoring she and her staff conducted on New Year's Eve. "We were out of there by 12:30 a.m."

Courthouse computers, including ones governing the emergency 911 system and the Gregg County Jail, functioned without incident, she said.

She also reported that the state systems in Austin on which Gregg County relies appeared to pass Y2K muster. Those include systems governing monthly child support accounts.

"All the state interfaces seem to be fine," Romines said. "We may run into some things today (Monday) as people use the system. But I'm not anticipating anything."

Romines' crew returned at 7 a.m. Monday to give the system its first check of the work week.

"We have one little tiny problem with a receipt number," she reported. "I'm thrilled to death everything went so well."

Key Longview city staff gathered at the emergency operations center at 9 p.m. Friday until early Saturday morning to respond to any problems. Though no Y2K problems appeared Friday night, the city faced another potential challenge Monday when its employees returned to work.

"Whenever we rolled over at midnight (Friday), we had staff monitoring our computer servers, but then (Monday) morning we had our main group of administrative employees and all our other employees that came in to access our PCs," LaFollett said.

Only one "minor hitch" occurred with the calendar in the city's e- mail system, she said. That function isn't used by many employees and affected 10 people at the most and no members of the public, she said.

"Whenever we printed out a calendar for 2000, it was blank," LaFollett said. "It's been fixed. Everything else is moving along pretty good at this point. We're very pleased with our preparedness."

Local banks also said they had experienced no Y2K-related problems but would continue to check their systems for any problems. Customers also were more calm than some had expected.

"We were well-prepared with extra money," said Dan Droege, executive vice president for Regions Bank in Longview, in case customers withdrew more money than usual due to Y2K concerns.

"Friday was like we weren't even open. I think people thought it was a holiday," Droege added.

It was a normal business day Friday at Longview Bank & Trust, said Randy Bjork, controller and Y2K coordinator.

"I do believe part of the reasons for that was the preparation that not only our bank put into that but the other industries (also)," Bjork said.

The bank also had experienced no problems Monday, but planned to continue monitoring its operations.

SWEPCO spokesman Scott McCloud said the power company also has had no Y2K-related problems.

"Of course, it was money well spent to prepare our systems," he said, and added that electricity is too important to consumers for the company not to have prepared for the date change.

SWEPCO did experience 32 power losses in Texas on Friday that affected 2,000 customers, including 51 people in Longview, McCloud said. But the power losses were not Y2K-related, and most were caused by animals. SWEPCO made sure power had been restored to all its customers before midnight Friday to help prevent panic, McCloud said.

Southwestern Bell External Affairs Director Anita Meyer directed questions about the company's transition to the Year 2000 Hotline for SBC Communications Corp., the parent company of Southwestern Bell. The final message from the company was dated 4 p.m. Jan. 1 and said no major "anomalies" had been reported.

Staff Writer Glenn Evans contributed to this story.

-- Bruce (Is it@fact.?), January 04, 2000.

So, I guess this would be inaccurate "heresay"?

-- Bayou Boy (BayouBoy@Bayou.com), January 05, 2000.