John Koskinen, George Grindley, Jr., Rick Cowles http://home.ica.net/~njarc/Docs/ckpower499.html In early April, Liza called my attention to a March 3rd, 1999, message in a thread in Ed Yourdon's Time Bomb! 2000 discussion forum: "Yesterday, someone posted in the Play by Play thread something about a Georgia representative who appeared on a radio talk show, saying that Koskinen was telling state officials to make contingency plans for a three-week power outage. A couple of us raised eyebrows at that, so Iinquired who it was. "I took the time to call GA Rep. Grindley yesterday. In our conversation, he established this and divulged a bit more. Mr. Grindley is chair of Georgia's Task Force 2000. In speaking with the CIO of Georgian state systems, the CIO mentioned that Koskinen had told them to ensure their contingency plans addressed 3 weeks without electric power." (A "CIO" is a Chief Information Officer - the head computer person.) I wrote to Representative George Grindley, Jr. to verify that. Here's his reply: From: "george grindley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Bill Dale" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Electricity & Y2K Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 22:36:47 -0400 Dear Bill, I did indeed make the statement that you attributed to me. John is using three weeks as the outside possibilty, but I think things could get ugly. I wouldn't give you any odds that nuclear power will be working by then. The feds have said they must be compliant by July 1, or shut down. It takes about 4 months to totally shut down a plant. Personally, I believe a serious concern is the cyber terrorism of the power grid. The department of defense is really concerned that this is being planned. This could last awhile under these conditions. The truth is,...no one really knows for sure. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and weigh the risk of preparation with the risk of non-preparation.. Yours in service, George Grindley State Rep. Dist. 35 Marietta Ga ---------------------------------------------- At about the same time, Cynthia Beal posted a note in the Millennium Salons forum that pointed me toward Cory Hamasaki's DC Weather Report #113. Along with Rick Cowles' interesting account of events related to the Peach Bottom 2 nuclear plant losing its monitoring systems doing Y2K testing, there was this: "On February 26th, Rick [Cowles] spoke at Y2KWise in Maryland. The meeting was well attended; there were about 200 people who listened, asked incisive and well thought out questions. After the meeting, I spoke with Rick, got his private assessment. Here's the DC Y2K Weather Report confidential word from Rick: 1. Expect serious problems with power for about a month. No guarantees one way or the other but prepare for black outs, brown outs, rolling black outs, voltage spikes, and other problems. 2. For about a year, the power will be unstable. There might be occasional outages, dirty power, your refrigerator might blow up, more black outs but not as frequent as in the first month. 3. Some places will have more problems than others." (End quote.) For those who've been trying to get a grip on the y2k power situation for the past couple of years, taken seperately, these two statements (as interesting as they are), are somehow "nothing new." But taken together, and considering they were made at approximately the same time in completely different contexts, they somehow seem more "definitive" (in a world completely muddled with, "No one knows"), and credible. Actually, they almost seem like "the outspoken radical" and the "ultra conservative" agreeing that it looks like we're in for somewhere between two weeks and a month of serious power trouble. Rick has been at the forefront of y2k and power communications with the general public since 1997. John Koskinen (chairperson of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion -- for anyone not familiar with him), has been highly "low key" since taking that job in February of last year, working hard to make sure no one panics over y2k. So... Don't panic, but... You know.
