Zero Hour Came and Went Without a Hitch in 1st Drill

“OK, people,” Sheriff’s Sgt. Richard Mushinski said to Fire and Sheriff’s Department staffers sitting at computer terminals inside the county Emergency Operations Center. “We’ve got to find out deaths, injuries, damage.”

County Fire Capt. Brian Jones checked with the coroner’s office and announced there were 49 confirmed deaths.

Then he glanced at his screen and added the 100 cultists who had flung themselves into a gravel pit from the San Gabriel River Freeway in Irwindale.

Judging by those screens, riots, power outages and gas explosions, along with the usual freeway gridlock, rocked the Southland on Wednesday. But inside the control room, it wasn’t Wednesday morning. It was the dawn of a new century and millennium and also zero hour for Y2K.

The county hosted its first millennium exercise and its most extensive disaster preparedness drill ever Wednesday. In seven disaster-packed hours, officials from the county, the National Guard, the county Fire Department and all 88 cities in the county simulated New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day and the first day back at work in the new millennium.

The idea was to act out worst-case scenarios. Actual cultists, paramedics and revelers stayed home--the exercise was entirely on paper and computer screens.

“We have really given Y2K due diligence here in Los Angeles County,” said Supervisor Don Knabe, citing $150 million in spending to upgrade computer systems.

Officials said they were so confident of their computer readiness that they were turning their attention to preparing for human-caused problems on New Year’s Eve.

Sheriff Lee Baca said an extra 600 law enforcement officers--300 sheriff’s deputies and 300 officers from other cities--will be on standby.