This is good news if it's true. The improvement is almost incredible:

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/19991220/tc/y2k_national_2.html

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

Monday December 20 5:46 PM ET

Most 911 Centers Said Y2K Ready

By KALPANA SRINIVASAN Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - After a startlingly low response rate last month on 911 call centers' readiness for the yearend rollover, a new survey indicates more than 98.5 percent of the centers say their equipment is now Y2K ready.

In the latest survey from the National Emergency Number Association, nearly all of the nation's 911 call centers reported that they can continue to provide enhanced services - like pinpointing where a person is calling from - once the date changes.

Those numbers represent a marked increase from the earlier White House report on Y2K preparedness, which said that only half of America's 911 call centers had confirmed that they were ready.

Public safety officials say 911 call centers have stepped up both their compliance and reporting efforts.

``In the interim period, we believe that the vast majority of (public safety answering points) and telephone companies have taken steps to bring their systems up to Y2K compliance,'' said Joe Hanna, president of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials.

NENA also has made additional queries about Y2K readiness, even phoning individual sites, garnering responses from 96 percent of the more than 4,360 call centers nationwide.

``Sometimes there is a reluctance just to fill out another survey,'' said Mark Adams, executive director of NENA. In other cases, centers didn't complete their Y2K compliance efforts until the second half of the year.

In other Y2K news:

-U.S. embassies abroad will stop issuing nonimmigrant visas for the first two working days of the new year and stop issuing immigrant visas for the first two weeks, the State Department's Office of Overseas Citizen Services said Monday.

-District of Columbia officials said Monday that they will have thousands of officers in place New Year's weekend.

``Certainly there will be heightened security measures at all government buildings,'' said D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey. In addition to the Metropolitan Police Department's 3,520 officers, the FBI, ATF, the National Park Service police, the D.C. National Guard, and the Defense Department also will have thousands of personnel on duty.

Federal Y2K officials said they remain wary about computer security.

``We're all concerned about hackers, criminals or others who will be trying to take advantage of that weekend,'' said John Koskinen, President Clinton's top Y2K adviser.

On the 911 compliance efforts, all of the call centers say they will be able to perform basic services, like answering calls and dispatching emergency response teams, according to NENA. Centers that did not report being Y2K ready may not have fully fixed problems with ``a piece of recording equipment or a mapping program that's helpful but not necessary,'' said Adams.

In those instances, callers may have to tell the operator their address instead of the computer immediately spotting it.

Public safety officials say the 911 problems that could arise over the New Year's weekend may have nothing to do with computer or phone systems. Rather, they may result from people wanting to test the emergency system or too many people picking up their phones to make calls at once.

``What everyone is concerned about is that people continue to use 911 responsibly, realizing that it's for true emergencies,'' Adams said.

Experts also recommend that people keep on hand direct numbers for fire and police departments, and other emergency services in their area.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), December 21, 1999

Answers

Previous 911 info:

http://www.star- telegram.com/news/doc/1047/1:COMP21/1:COMP21110899.html

[snip]

Updated: Monday, Nov. 8, 1999 at 21:47 CST

Some 911 numbers not Y2K compliant

By R.A. Dyer

Star-Telegram Austin bureau

SAN ANTONIO -- As many as half the nation's 911 emergency networks -- generally those in rural areas -- may continue to have the Y2K bug in their computers, a top official for Y2K readiness said yesterday.

Therefore, residents should keep handy the direct dial numbers of local fire, police and ambulance services, said John Koskinen, chairman of the President's Council on Y2K Conversion. He also suggested stockpiling sufficient food, fuel and cash to last for "a long winter's weekend."

"The smaller institutions in the education and health-care fields are moving slower than we would like," Koskinen said in a speech to a convention of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. "The last information we have for the 911 systems are that only half of those systems are already Y2K compliant. So there are still areas where we have work to do, even with only 53 days left to go."

[snip]

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), December 21, 1999.

It's Kosky's magic wand!

-- TM (mercier7@pdnt.com), December 21, 1999.