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The USA vs. Y2K by Erik J. Martin (This is part two of a two-part interview with Jack Gribben, spokesman for the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion and press secretary to council chair John Koskinen.) Q : What is the United States doing to help other nations fight Y2K? A : The United States is probably farther ahead than any other country in dealing with this problem. We have been working recently outside the U.S. to encourage countries to take action on Y2K and coordinate international activity. The Y2K coordinators for Canada and Mexico, which are two of our key trading partners, have recently meet with John to coordinate activity in North America. Last December our council helped the United Nations pull together its first meeting on the Year 2000 problem. We thought we'd get about 50 people, but representatives from 120 countries ended up attending. Another meeting is set for June. We live and work in a world economy. If there are problems overseas, that could create a problem for us. It's within the United States' interests to ensure that other countries are taking this problem seriously. We're somewhat fortunate in the sense that most industrialized countries are seriously focused on Y2K and are farther ahead than many other areas of the world. Q : What's been the United States' most difficult Y2K problem? A : Getting a handle on the international area. In many countries, information is hard to get a hold of. The biggest challenge has been trying to educate other nations and help them get organized. It's not just a problem of each country’s government systems – it’s their private sectors and their finance, transportation, telecommunications industries, too. Q : What could be the worst case scenario for our country on January 1, 2000? A : Widespread failures in the private sector and internationally. But based on the data that we have available to our council, we're confident that there won't be national disruptions in key infrastructure areas. I don't think we'll the power grid will go down, as some are predicting. We feel very good about the progress made in the banking, telecommunications and electric power industries. The electric power industry assesses itself each quarter. Over 50 percent of its critical systems are now compliant, and it has a goal of (achieving 100 percent Y2K compliance) by June 30. We could, however, face local outages and disruptions in service due to some local governments and businesses who currently aren't doing much on the problem. Polls and recent surveys show that, while many small business owners are aware of the problem, anywhere from a third to a half of them don't intend to do anything about it. This taking an attitude of "wait-and-see," and "we'll fix it when it breaks’" could be trouble. The challenge is to get business owners to realize that they're rolling the dice with the future of their companies. We don't foresee anything like rioting and looting, but the federal government will stand ready to play a role where its called upon. During any event, whether it be a hurricane or earthquake, the federal government has emergency response plans. There are different agencies that have responsibilities in that area, including the Department of Defense, the State Department and the Treasury Department. FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) is the most recognizable agency responsible for domestic emergency response. FEMA is already reaching out to state and local emergency managers. They've had a series of regional meetings this spring specifically focused on Y2K and the challenges it poses to emergency response officials. Our council is also working hard to coordinate contingency planning and emergency response capabilities on the federal level. Q : What do you predict will happen on January 1, 2000, and how should Americans prepare? A : It's very hard to predict. I don't think we're going to see any showstoppers. We may see some localized, temporary outages in service, but nothing catastrophic. There will be many people who live in different areas of the country who may not have any problems at all. Citizens should be prepared as they normally would for something like a winter storm, which could knock out power in your community for a day or two. Have on hand batteries for flashlights and two to three days supply of food and water. That’s just good preparedness sense. You should also continue to keep copies of banking and credit card statements. I would also recommend talking to officials on the local level if you have questions. This provides decision-makers with the evidence that their citizens really do want to know about Y2K progress. Is your local power company compliant? Find out. Ask questions. Continue to stay informed about the problem and the progress being made at the federal and local level. 1999 Thomson Target Media Erik J. Martin is a freelance journalist who has penned a regular multimedia column for Screen Magazine and has written for a variety of other publications, including the Chicago Tribune, Coverstory and The X-Files Official Magazine. He lives in Oak Lawn, Illinois, with his wife, son, and the Millennium Bug, which he is still trying to exterminate from his PC. Certainly no self-proclaimed technowhiz, Erik prides himself on being "an average guy with the same concerns and questions about Y2K as everyone else. My job? To get answers to those questions, and pass them along to you." Techno file index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA