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comprehensive Y2K contingency plan has been prepared by

the city of Peachtree City in the hopes of being ready

for anything that might happen when the clock strikes

midnight at the end of this year.

A draft of

the plan, a copy of which is available at City Hall for

interested citizens to read, addresses in detail how the

city's various departments are to operate in case of a

Y2K-related emergency. It was presented to the City

Council at its May 20 meeting.

While the

city is not expecting a catastrophe in any particular

area, the possibility of technological interruptions is a

real one, and city staff are preparing for any potential

problem.

Beginning

Dec. 31 at 7 p.m. and continuing into the year 2000,

"Failure of information technology and embedded chip

equipment and systems may disrupt normal activities,

operations and services," according to the plan.

"Potential systemic failures include electrical

power, communications, water supplies, sewage treatment,

transportation, commerce, and financial transactions. A

failure of either electrical power or communications will

have cascade impact on other systems and services."

Informing

the general public is acknowledged as vitally important,

and the plan states that individual preparation also is

necessary to a certain extent.

The

possibility of disruptions occurring more than once,

lasting from hours to weeks, has been recognized,

although sporadic disruptions of a day are most likely.

Many

networks will have the potential for trouble beginning at

7 p.m. local time Dec. 31 because of their operation on

Universal Coordinated Time (Greenwich Mean Time), which

will then be at midnight.

A study by

the GartnerGroup reports that "leading"

industries and large enterprises, with more than 20,000

employees, have a mission-critical failure probability

rate of less than 15 percent. That percentage goes up as

businesses get smaller, with small enterprises of fewer

than 2,000 employees having an 80-percent probability of

a mission-critical failure.

The

GartnerGroup also projects an 80-percent probability of

at least one Y2K-induced systems failure in half of the

nation's electrical utilities. The Peachtree City plan

acknowledges that disruptions of electrical power and/or

communications will cause the greatest disruptions to

normal activities and services.

The city's

general contingency plan directs each department and

authority to inventory any Y2K-susceptible equipment and

systems, along with a determination of whether each piece

of equipment is Y2K-compliant. Departments and

authorities also are instructed to list necessary action

to correct Y2K problems and prioritize mission-critical

functions, as well as preparing a contingency plan to be

reviewed by the city management team.

Under the

plan, the city would operate an emergency operations

center from noon Dec. 31 until 6 p.m. Jan. 7. All city

personnel designated as necessary for emergency or

mission-critical functions will be either on duty or

readily available for duty during that time.

Instructions

for management of emergency situations, direction of the

emergency operating center, and continuity of government

in case of an emergency are spelled out in the plan.

The fire

chief/director of Civil Defense, under the direction of

the mayor and city manager, is designated as manager of

the EOC on a day-to-day basis, and would coordinate with

various city departments involved in emergency operations

as well as outside emergency management agencies and

other Y2K-related duties.

The plan

also details the responsibilities of each department and

authority head assigned primary emergency functions.

"Priority

for distribution of supplies and equipment will be given

to emergency power, emergency communications, emergency

medications and medical services, heat and/or air

conditioning, water, and food," according to the

plan.

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