And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
South Dakota's Governor Issues Y2K Alarm
Link:
http://www.state.sd.us/governor/FILES/sos99c/transcript...
* * * * * * * * * * *
. . . But I am going to appoint a task force to really deal
with this question. The unknown can be as dangerous as
what we know. I�ve deliberately bit my lip for the last two
years on this subject matter, and now we are down to 12
months. We face an absolute catastrophe in the world
because of this problem. On the other hand, it may not be
much of anything. The biggest problem is, we don�t know.
But don�t take anybody lightly that tells you that the roof
could come falling in. I can tell you today that if year 2000
hit today, the electric grid that serves South Dakota would
go down. It would not stay up, and don�t believe anybody
that tells you it would. Now, by the year 2000, it might,
but today it will go down. Year 2000 doesn�t come in the
middle of June when the temperature is decent. It�s
coming on December 31 in the middle of winter.
We can�t take the risk that our telephone and
telecommunications companies won�t operate. We can�t
take that risk. They have to function. We must have
hospitals where they�ve got electricity and gas. It has to
work. There�s no program Bill Janklow or you folks
together could implement on December 31 to take care of
telephones, medical, law enforcement, and the utilities.
They must work. We must let the public know, every step
during the course of this year, what is Y2K compliant, and
what isn�t. We must let the public know that. I can tell you
that I�m absolutely, positively, unequivocally assured by
our folks in state government, we will be ready. Our
percentages now are in the 15-30 range. But we are going
through over 100 million lines of code with our
programmers. And as we approach certain thresholds, all
of a sudden we�ll start taking quantum leaps. When I say
we�re ready�unlike most other states, where you hear a
neighboring state is 80 percent ready, they�re only dealing
with critical systems�we�re dealing with all our systems!
Not critical, they�re all critical. We�re dealing with 100
percent of ours. And we don�t count ours ready until we
have taken it to the mountain in Colorado where our
backup center is, put it on their computers and run the
whole thing on their computers without any tape from
ours. And it works. And if it doesn�t work, we don�t count
it as ready. But I�m assured we will be ready by July 1 of
this year, and we spent a few million bucks doing it. Then
from that point on, we will be testing and retesting until the
end of the year.
But our citizens have to know where are the telephone and
telecommunications companies. We have 60-some phone
companies in South Dakota. They all have to be ready.
Every hospital has to be ready at least with respect to
feeding and caring for the people that are there. Their
equipment has to work, or the public should know that.
We can�t make them make it work�anybody. But the
public has to know who�s going to function, and who isn�t.
The law enforcement and the fire departments, their
equipment has to function�911�I can tell you that the
task force that this Legislature mandated be put together in
legislation last year that�s completing its work got a report
last Thursday. I believe that says the top eighteen 911s in
South Dakota are not Y2K compliant. As a matter of fact,
one of the major vendors that provides equipment says, If
you bought it from us before, get this, 1997 we�re not
going to make it compliant. If you bought it afterwards, we
will. So they are faced with the prospect of buying new
equipment that may have been purchased in 1996. But
right now the top 18 are not compliant, but they are
working on it.
We�ve got to make sure that we have municipal water and
rural water. Have to have it. No other choice. We�ve got
to make sure that sewer systems�municipal water is
meaningless if you can�t flush it or let it go down the
kitchen sink or the bath drain. The sewer systems have to
work. We have to make sure that those places that live on
natural gas, the natural gas has to work. And the electrical
generation�our power companies, our various
investor-owned utilities, our public power systems�those
that generate, those that distribute, those that do both, they
have to function, because one of them going down can
suck the whole system down on the grid. So we are going
to put together a group of people, and they will be making
reports with regularity to the public with respect to these
specific areas�state government, for those local
governments that choose to be involved, fine. I�ll not
attempt to force them to do anything. But all the rest of
them I�m going to use the gubernatorial powers that I have
that deal with emergencies and crises to get the
information and make it available to the public. I do know
the Public Utilities Commission has met with respect
to�electrical utilities had a meeting and I believe
telephone utilities, so far. So they�re also working on this
endeavor. But, folks, this is terribly critical, and so, rather
then being an alarmist, I�m just going to tell you that we
will try and get the information to the public as fast as we
can intelligently and effectively assemble it. And we will be
prepared, at least to deal with, hopefully, those limited
emergency situations that we have to deal with December
31. There could be some disruptions in April, and there
could be some disruptions on September 9. This is
obviously out of my bailiwick, but they tell me that
programmers used to end their programs with 9999, four
nines. Well, that happens to be also 9-9 of 99, and the
computer doesn�t know the difference. So, for some, it
may trigger when it gets to that. When it sees that date it
may trigger and say that�s the end of the program, shut it
off, and shut it down. For some it may erase it. The
problem is nobody knows where all those 9999s are.
That�s the problem. If they knew where they were,
because they were long ago put in place by people who�ve
long since passed away, moved away, gone into other
occupations, or won�t tell you, whatever the case is. . . .
Link:
http://www.state.sd.us/governor/FILES/sos99c/transcript..
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