How Americans prepared for the year 2000: NPR

In December 1999, the world braced for an impending global meltdown known as Y2K. It all started with a seemingly small software glitch. Many older computer programs coded dates using only two numbers to represent the year. At midnight on December 31st, a misinterpretation of the year 2000 ’00’ causes a widespread error that could cause mass panic.

The Clinton administration said preparing the United States for the year 2000 is perhaps the “greatest technology management challenge in history.” This bug means that if the systems and software that help keep society functioning lose track of what year it is, power outages, medical equipment failures, banks shut down, and transportation systems creaky. It threatened a series of potential disruptions, including an outage.

These fears have given rise to another anxiety-inducing acronym: TEOTAWKI, or “The End of the World as We Know It.” Thankfully, the so-called “Y2K problem” didn’t live up to the hype.

NPR covered Y2K preparations in the years leading up to the new millennium. Here’s a snapshot of how people coped, as told to an NPR Network reporter.

Infrastructure systems ready for the worst

Paloma O’Reilly, a computer expert and grassroots organizer, compared the scale and urgency of Y2K preparation to telling someone to replace a rivet on the Golden Gate Bridge. Replacing one rivet is easy, but “if you tell this person they have to replace every rivet on the bridge and they only have 24 hours, that’s a problem,” O’Reilly told Jason. told. Beaubien in 1998.

So why wasn’t the U.S. infrastructure in place in the first place? Stephanie Moore, then a senior analyst at Giga Information Group, told NPR that this was a result of computers’ expensive initial data efficiency measures. He said that the year was formatted as two digits instead of four, and that most computers interpreted “00” as 1900. .

“If we roll over to the year 2000 now, instead of computers thinking it’s 2001, they’re going to think it’s 1901,” Moore said, adding, “If we had always used a four-digit year,” He added that 2000 could have been avoided.

The date switch sent shockwaves through a range of critical technologies, including Wall Street trading systems, power plants, and tools used in air traffic control. As the year 2000 approached, the Federal Aviation Administration conducted stress tests and simulated scenarios on the system.

“23 million lines of code for an air traffic control system seemed a little more daunting than I probably expected,” FAA Administrator Jane Garvey told NPR in 1998. Although ultimately no system-wide aviation failure occurred, airlines were placed on alert in 2000.

The crisis in securing these systems has reminded us that the technologies that support people’s daily lives are interdependent and constantly evolving.

“People forget that it took 300 to 500 years to build the infrastructure for the Industrial Revolution,” Mark Haselkorn, a professor of engineering at the University of Washington, said at the time. “And we’ve been putting the infrastructure in place for the information age for about 50 years. So it’s not surprising that there are some issues.”

People are preparing for “eavesdropping”

trailer house. A year’s worth of dry food. Propane generators — These were just some of the precautionary purchases California computer programmer Scott Olmsted made prior to 2000 (he also said he had purchased handguns).

Even if Y2K causes food shortages, power grid failures, or even a spike in crime, Olmstead told NPR, “If you want to ‘bug out,’ as programmers say, no matter what it is, you can do it.” ” he said. I have somewhere to go. ” He added that they may withdraw money from banks and convert it into gold, silver or cash.

As a concerned nation ponders non-panic wealth strategies, Brian Roby, vice president of First National Bank in Olathe, Kan., told NPR that his bank will be ready to welcome customers on New Year’s Day rather than taking a holiday. He said he is doing so.

“We thought about it and said, ‘If you’re ready, you’re ready. Let’s prove it. Let’s be the first to be open,'” Roby said. “And we’re going to be open like any other Saturday.”

Some financial analysts remained skeptical that Y2K would end with minimal disruption. However, by November 1999, the Federal Reserve said it was confident that the U.S. economy would survive the major transformation.

“Federal banking institutions have been visited and inspected. Every bank in the United States, including perhaps 9,000 to 10,000 institutions, received a satisfactory rating of more than 99 percent,” Federal Reserve Board President Edward Kelly said at the time. said.

neighbors united

To prevent unnecessary panic, dozens of communities across the United States have formed Y2K preparedness groups. Kathy Garcia, an organizer with the Y2K Community Project in Boulder, Colorado, said fears of societal collapse have provided an opportunity to take stock.

“How do we help each other in advance of a disaster, rather than when it happens?” Garcia told NPR’s Margot Adler in 1999.

Her project set up shop in a Boulder Mall storefront, offering Y2K educational videos and exhibits on food storage. Local resident Richard Dash stopped by to urge people to consider their neighbors as well as themselves.

“Do you want to be the only house with lights on and the only house with the smell of food wafting in? Do you really want to turn yourself into a bunker?” he said.

Dash added that he hopes nothing happens to Y2K, other than a renewed sense that he can count on his community in an emergency, and that the community can count on him, too. Instead of saving extra food, he said, people can come together and share it.

“Let’s all have a picnic,” he said. “We provide extra food for food shares, so no one goes hungry for a while, and that’s great.”

Crush the Y2K bug

After all, the worst fear was in the expectations. Despite some minor hiccups, including reports of slow internet and broken clocks, proactive planning and readjustment paid off. Humanity reached the year 2000 without any major turmoil.

“I was pleasantly surprised,” John Koskinen, chairman of the 2000 Council of Converted Presidents, told NPR Weekend Edition on January 1, 2000. “We expected to see further challenges early on, especially around the world.”

People like Jack Penthes of Charlotte, North Carolina, had to figure out what to do with their emergency supplies. Penthes had 50 large soda bottles filled with tap water. “I used six in the washing machine,” he told NPR. “I can’t stand pouring water and throwing it away. Too many people in the world don’t have access to decent water.”

Meanwhile, food writer Michael Stern offered a chili recipe, or Spam, for those who have leftover canned food.

“Part of its appeal is that it doesn’t disassemble,” Stern said. “No matter how long it takes to cook, it always maintains its Spam identity.”

Some people have never been able to completely shake off their instinct to plan ahead. Alfred Lubrano, an essayist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, wrote a letter that was included in a time capsule to be opened in the lead-up to Y3K, the year 3000. Lubrano’s letter, which he read on NPR, ended with a question for the person he found in the newspaper. next millennium.

“We are human beings just like you. We are flawed like you, but we are also decent like you,” Lubrano wrote. “We still don’t understand this world, this life. Do you understand?”

Original reporting by NPR’s Jason Beaubien, Ira Flatow, Steve Inskeep, Mary Ann Akers, Jack Speer, Larry Abramson, Margot Adler and Bob Edwards.