Answers

Response to John Koskinen, Rick Cowles on Power

With the amount of research done by various groups and institutions I feel the power grid is in jeopardy. I Think the real question should be, " what person in there right mind would say that preparations for a 2 week period should be enough to get through any disruption?"

If we are to expect problems to ocour, what makes us believe the power companies will fix the outages within that two week period. If they can't take care of the situation and have it resolved before the new year, who's to say they will have it fixed or under controll within 2 weeks?

I have a feeling that those people that are in a leadership position who have been telling the american people that there's nothing to worry about better be well prepared them selves in case y2k does create the problems expected, I would hate to be in there shoes, ever heard of linch mobs? I think that people are going to want answers hook or by crook as to why they were not properly warned.

-- M.J.Rice (freepower@webtv.net), May 30, 1999.

Response to John Koskinen, Rick Cowles on Power

The following is an email with Rick Cowles on this article: Clayton,

Arrrgh.

This never seems to go away. You have to be familiar with Cory Hamasaki's loosey-goosey writing style. Refrigerators will most certainly not "blow up". I would hope folks in the industry give me a bit more credit than that. ;-)

The only thing that was totally accurate about the entire quote is:

"Some places will have more problems than others."

I recently asked Cory to address this in his next WRP, because even though it was written in a tongue and cheek manner, a lot of people seem to have taken it as gospel.

Best regards,

Rick Cowles

On Thu, 3 Jun 1999 09:07:33 -0400, you wrote:

>Rick, >The following article has a quote attributed to you. It is from the Web site of Gary North. http://www.garynorth.com/y2k/detail_cfm/4836 . I would like to know it the quote is accurate. > >At about the same time, Cynthia Beal posted a note in the Millennium Salons forum that pointed me toward Cory Hamasaki's DC Weather Report #113. Along with Rick Cowles' interesting account of events related to the Peach Bottom 2 nuclear plant losing its monitoring systems doing Y2K testing, there was this: > >"On February 26th, Rick [Cowles] spoke at Y2KWise in Maryland. The meeting was well attended; there were about 200 people who listened, asked incisive and well thought out questions. > >After the meeting, I spoke with Rick, got his private assessment. Here's the DC Y2K Weather Report confidential word from Rick: > >1. Expect serious problems with power for about a month. No guarantees one way or the other but prepare for black outs, brown outs, rolling black outs, voltage spikes, and other problems. > >2. For about a year, the power will be unstable. There might be occasional outages, dirty power, your refrigerator might blow up, more black outs but not as frequent as in the first month. > >3. Some places will have more problems than others." (End quote.) > >For those who've been trying to get a grip on the y2k power situation for the past couple of years, taken seperately, these two statements (as interesting as they are), are somehow "nothing new." But taken together, and considering they were made at approximately the same time in completely different contexts, they somehow seem more "definitive" (in a world completely muddled with, "No one knows"), and credible. > >Actually, they almost seem like "the outspoken radical" and the "ultra conservative" agreeing that it looks like we're in for somewhere between two weeks and a month of serious power trouble. Rick has been at the forefront of y2k and power communications with the general public since 1997. John Koskinen (chairperson of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion - for anyone not familiar with him), has been highly "low key" since taking that job in February of last year, working hard to make sure no one panics over y2k. > >So... Don't panic, but... You know. > > > > > >Thanks > >Clayton W. Clendinen > >Database Administrator > >Orlando Utilities Commission

Rick Cowles

CyberServices, America 129 West Main St. Penns Grove, NJ 08069 (609)299-4634

-- Clayton W. Clendinen (cclendinen@ouc.com), June 03, 1999.

Response to John Koskinen, Rick Cowles on Power

Clayton,

Thanks for the input. I wrote to Rick prior to posting that page (asking the same question your did), and asked him if he was okay with it. I never heard from him. (Extremely busy, no doubt.)

So Rick is saying Cory made that stuff up? I know you have no way of knowing that, but when Rick says the only thing that was accurate was, "Some places will have more problems than others," it sure sounds like he's say he never said we could expect 30 days of blackouts, brownouts, rolling blackouts. Refrigerators blowing up is one thing (I had suspicions about that myself). But if making up things like 30 days of blackouts and attributing the comment to Rick is an example or Cory's "loosey-goosey" style, that would seem sort of a "loosey- goosey" way of putting it. Great Big, Maybe Even Dangerous Lie would be a little more like it.

If that's the case, I'd sure like to know about it and get that stuff off that page (mine anyway). I know for as much of a fact as possible that John Koskinen did indeed tell the Georgia CIO (and apparently, all state CIOs - though I can't verify that), that they should base their contingency plans on a 3 week power outage. That doesn't mean he _believes there are going to be 3 weeks of outages, but, for whatever reasons, chose that as a guideline for state people to go by. That, to me, is interesting enough in itself. Rick's conicidental perspective (that he is apparently saying isn't his, but Cory's?), was an "interesting," well... Coincidence.

Anway. Thanks again for the update (I think )...

-- Bill (billdale@lakesnet.net), June 03, 1999.