*ESR CLOSE UP*
ABOUT HALF OF ALL U.S. COUNTIES ARE NOT PREPARED FOR POTENTIAL Y2K PROBLEM
By Paul Anderson, ERRI Analyst
WASHINGTON (EmergencyNet News) - The National Association of Counties said on Tuesday that about 50 percent of the United States' counties have no strategic plans to tackle millennium bug computer problems that could snarl everything from ambulances to railroad signal lights to drinking water supplies. Thegroup, which represents the nation's 3,069 counties, said only about half of the 500 counties it surveyed in November are ready for potentially disastrous computer snafus on 1 January 2000.
A recent similar survey conducted by the Chicago-based Emergency Response and Research Institute sampled 212 participants from Fire, Police, EMS, Disaster, and Military agencies in the United States and Canada. The ERRI survey found that 43.7 percent of the respondents said that their department is NOW effectively prepared to deal with any eventuality relating to the "Y2K" or "Millennium Bug."
Terry Wood, who handles such problems for Montgomery County, Maryland, said that with only 13 months left before Year 2000, "urgency is the name of the game."
Betty Lou Ward, president of the counties group said, "It is a critical problem that has the potential for disaster."
The Year 2000 problem stems from the early days of computers when memory was a precious commodity. Programmers used only two digits to indicate the year, and this may now cause computers to recognize the year 2000 as the year 1900 and crash or give inaccurate data. Most vulnerable are the thousands of small, rural counties dotting the nation.
Of the 119 counties surveyed with less than 10,000 people, 74 have no countywide plans to prevent possible chaos. By contrast, all but one of the 16 counties surveyed with half-a-million or more people said they had countywide plans.
Tim Lowenstein, supervisor of Buffalo County, Nebraska, said of rural counties: "They look at the problem as beyond their ability to solve. But to ignore the problem is to walk barefoot through a Nebraska pasture infested with rattlesnakes." Lowenstein stressed that the problem is "fixable" by even the tiniest localities.
Asked for worst-case scenarios, officials pictured cities with elevators marooned on 30th floors, traffic grids paralyzed by dark traffic signals, and 911 emergency response systems thrown into chaos. But officials said many counties are making progress. While some have no strategic plan, 91 percent have hired someone to handle the problem and officials in 77 percent of those counties have already begun working on the issue.
Los Angeles County, the largest in the survey, says it will cost $155 million to fix the problem. By contrast, tiny Ohio County, Indiana, with a population of 5,458, expected $400,000 in costs.
In other findings, less than half of counties have tackled the stickiest Year 2000 problem -- searching systems for embedded computer chips that must be checked. And less than one third those surveyed plan to test their systems countywide, even though such systems often are linked. Nearly 75 percent have no stopgap plans if the emergency systems they put in place fail.
The survey, prepared for the group by National Research, Inc., said that overall, 23 percent of counties said they will spend the most to fix computers involved in general government administration while 16 percent said fixing tax and finance systems will be the costliest. Eleven percent said modifying emergency response systems will cost the most, while nine percent cited fixing court related programs.
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