STORY:
Y2K-Truth and Fiction

What the public thinks about Y2K will be critical as the New Year approaches

Are you worried you’ll be stuck in an elevator this New Year’s Eve? Wondering if you’ll lose power when the clock strikes midnight? If so, your fears will fuel Y2K’s actual problems as the year changes to 2000.

Senator Christoper Dodd, is co-chairman of the Senate’s Y2K panel and he compares the computer-generated worries to Orson Welles’ radio broadcast "War of the Worlds". That 1938 broadcast was just a story, but many people actually believed Martians had landed on earth. The perception of what was happening drove the public reaction, people were panicking thinking earth was being invaded. The same problem could happen with Y2K.

Much of the hype and discussion about the computer Y2K problem is misleading Dodd told a Senate panel. In fact, in many cases people are worried about the wrong things. For example: power outages at the stroke of midnight are highly unlikely. Elevators don’t care about the date on a calendar they will operate so will your household utilities.

A recent survey by the Roper Starch firm polled just over 1,000 adults. The survey found the public was most worried about nuclear power plant malfunction, plane crashes, ATM failures and power blackouts. But those are not the chief concerns of those working around-the-clock on Y2K issues.

Power plants, nuclear and otherwise, rely very little on digital technologies imbedded with the two-digit date flaw that is the Y2K culprit. The reason: most power facilities, especially nuclear plants, pre-date widespread use of digital technology. Because they don’t rely on digital technology the Y2K bug will not threaten them.

As for aviation, modern aircraft are indeed full of high technology. However, much of it can be manually overridden. On top of that, major navigation systems in Europe and the United States have been monitored intensely and tested over and over again.

Senator Dodd and others worry that what the public fears and what experts are finding out could spell a lot of trouble. The problem is with perception. If the public goes into a panic mode, then even if there was nothing to panic over you will still have a major problem.

The biggest myth going is that everything that might go wrong will go wrong at midnight, when that is not necessarily the case. Norman Dean is with a Washington-based think tank, and he says the Y2K problems people should most fear will actually happen later in the year.

A main concern when it comes to Y2K problems is small and medium-size plants handling hazardous chemicals. There are at least 60,000 facilities that range from small chemical refineries to refrigeration warehouse all use large volumes of ammonia. Their Y2K readiness is still in question because they are operating on their own and many have computer-driven devices that monitor chemical safety.

If there are Y2K problems at these facilities we will not see them at midnight, but months after the calendar changes to the year 2000, Dean told the Gannett News Service. Many of these plants use chemicals but don’t actually produce those chemicals because of that, they are not held up to stringent scrutiny by the government.

Dodd and others are most worried about public perception right now. The challenge is not compliance or readiness for Y2K, but the public’s perception of such things. The Welles broadcast drove public reaction to panic mode and Dodd doesn’t want the same thing to happen with Y2K. The public should be concerned and should pay attention to possible problems but adding panic to the puzzle just increases the danger.

DATE: 11/2/99

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