Tests Show County Is Y2K Ready, Officials Say

Ventura County officials joined with state and federal officials via satellite Tuesday to compare notes about Y2K preparedness and concluded that the county is in good shape for the turn of the century.

At conference rooms in Camarillo and Thousand Oaks and in two dozen other locations throughout the state, officials discussed how they readied hospitals, airports, banks and a host of other places for the changeover to the year 2000.

“It makes me feel more comfortable. I have no doubt that we are ready,” said Steve F. Murphee, facilities manager for the county’s Human Services Agency.

Douglas A. Beach, manager of the hazardous-materials section of the county’s Environmental Health Division, said he also believes the county has done all it can to prepare.

“It’s just a reaffirmation that we are on the right track with what we are doing,” Beach said toward the end of Tuesday morning’s three-hour satellite conference.

To prepare, Beach’s office sent out letters to more than 2,000 businesses in the county that handle hazardous materials, including places like mom-and-pop repair shops, and asked them to make compliant all computers that control processes involving hazardous materials.

About 80 businesses that handle large amounts of hazardous wastes still need to be checked by county officials, he said.

Murphee and Beach were among three dozen county officials who watched the live satellite broadcast at the Camarillo Airport. Four more officials gathered in Thousand Oaks.

The “Emergency Preparedness for Transition to the New Millennium” panelists, sitting in studios in San Diego and Washington, D.C., explained how their offices prepared for Y2K and also answered questions phoned in by viewers.

Raymond Riordon, a municipal water official from San Diego, told how his department tested a computer system that controls the treatment of waste water. They were forced to repair a glitch when waste water overflowed from a container and doused a new car in the parking lot.

Video panelist James T. Whitehead Jr., regional operations manager for the Federal Aviation Administration, said the public should know it can fly without fear because the nation’s airports are ready for any Y2K glitches.

Federal officials are so confident that potential problems have been eliminated that the agency’s chief administrator will be traveling by plane on Dec. 31, Whitehead said.

And state banking officials said there was no reason for people to drain their checking accounts in fear of not being able to use ATM machines at 12:01 a.m.

Steve Malowney, a spokesman for a San Diego utility company, said his company would have local media representatives on site New Year’s Eve to describe to the public any problems that occur and that hourly updates will be available to the public on a Web page and a recorded phone message.

Vincent Montane, a spokesman for the UCSD Medical Center, said the hospital had simulated a stadium collapse to have employees practice handling a disaster with a power outage, computer failures and supply shortages.

“A lot of the people who attended said the conference was very informative,” said Laura D. Hernandez, assistant director of the county’s Office of Emergency Services.

Hernandez used her cell telephone to ask panelists whether a statewide communications system that is used for collecting damage information during disasters would be accessible by the county as the year ends.

State officials said they hoped the system would be up and running by Dec. 31.

“There’s no definite date as to when it will be available,” Hernandez said.

Paul Wunsch, a member of a disaster preparedness committee for naval bases in Point Mugu and Port Hueneme, also said the conference reassured him that the bases are prepared for any problems.

“We’re pretty much done,” Wunsch said. “We’re getting ready for another drill but that’s about it.”