Cynthia Brush sent this along as a report after she spoke to the county Office of Emergency Services. It shows what can be accomplished if we all took a piece of the local Y2K puzzle and made some inquiries of our own. Thanks Cynthia. This is invaluable information.

Hi! Everybody,

I spoke w/Chris Godley, Deputy Director of the Office of Emergency Services (OES-Sonoma County) yesterday. My motivation was to get an "insider's" info on the latest update on ELECTRICITY availability after the new year, since Santa Rosa's water system uses electricity to fill reservoirs from the Russian River. This is what I learned - during EMERGENCIES: - The County administrator becomes the OES director and all major decision-makers: PG&E, Police, Fire, etc. gather in Major Crisis Center (4 miles from OES offices). The PG&E representative is a senior electricity transmission (distribution) coordinator. - PG&E will still own the Geysers geo-thermal plant when year rolls over, as its sale won't be final 'til later in 2000. - Sonoma County+City of Santa Rosa will likely have electricity for emergency & essential services (water, etc.)...since both the Crisis Center as well as PG&E's REGIONAL electricity transmission center is located in Santa Rosa. - Overall electricity for residences & businesses will likely be allocated regionally in rotating black-outs. How this will be handled is being decided by the Public Utilities Commission right now. The PUC & FEMA will make their Y2K contingency plans public as soon as they are determined...to allow individuals time to prepare. (A bit late in my opinion, but who's asking!) - Also, everyone needs to continue their preparations for EARTHQUAKES. The OES expects a major EQ to affect Sonoma county in 1999 or 2000. Many of your Y2K and EQ preparations overlap, but DO look at your furnishings and valued possessions to protect yourself and them from damage. If you don't have our sheet on "EQ prep in 5 Weekends" let us know. Glad we're all part of the same community,

Cynthia Brush mudwoman@greyvisual.com

-- Jean Wasp (jean@sonic.net), July 29, 1999

Answers

I just wanted to expand on Cynthia's report. County Emergency Services is not 'expecting' a major earthquake in 1999 or 2000. However, a comprehensive report detailing the EQ probabilities for the SF Bay Area is due to be released this October. Early word has it that the report will describe an overall increase in the chance of a major EQ in the Bay Area sometime during the next 20 years.

Cynthia's comments about continuing to prepare for EQs are absolutely dead on - even if Y2K does not deliver a worst case scenario, any preparations undertaken will pay off when a major EQ strikes.

s/ Chris Godley, Sonoma County Emergency Services

-- Chris Godley (cgodley@sonoma-county.org), July 30, 1999.