Y2K News Flash: Nothing Continues To Happen

Reading through a laundry list of the critical sectors that reported being unaffected by Y2K, John Koskinen, Chair of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion said that the
Council is collecting "continued positive information both here and abroad."

In the United States, the electric power, telecommunications,
banking, securities, aviation and satellite sectors are all reporting
that their systems are operating normally

"At this point we are not aware of anything that is broken as a
result of Y2K," Koskinen said at the briefing.

Where Y2K-related problems have cropped up, they have been
fairly minor in scale and easily fixed, Koskinen said.

A handful of electric utilities in the United States have reported
glitches in their timing systems, all of which have been fixed.
Overseas both Japan and Spain reported glitches in some
nuclear plants (see related Newsbytes article).

Neither the US utility problem nor those reported in Japan and
Spain had safety ramifications, nor have they resulted in
Y2K-related blackouts.

But despite the surfeit of good news coming in from around
the world, Koskinen continued to urge caution, warning that
neither the United States nor the rest of the world is out of the
Y2K woods just yet.

"It is far to early for us to feel satisfied and declare total
victory," Koskinen said.

The major test of business readiness is expected Monday,
when corporations around the world begin the work week.

"Those (countries) that did not spend enough" time and effort
on Y2K may still experience failures, Koskinen said.

If the rollover continues to be uneventful it will not mean that
the Y2K problem never really existed, but rather it "will reflect
the success of a unique massive cooperative effort,"
Koskinen said.

The President's Council will continue to post new information on its Website at http://www.y2k.gov, and will hold regular briefings throughout the weekend at its Information Coordination Center here.