A failure in any one of these will bring down the other two, the site says, resulting in mass famine, social turmoil and a return to a 19th century lifestyle. Click, clack, there go the power, transportation and heating dominos. The Defense Special Weapons Agency, responsible for the safety and security of U.S. nuclear stockpiles and emergency response to nuclear incidents, doesn't raise the odds. Meanwhile, military services are still buying major weapons systems from vendors not required to deliver Y2K-compliant products, the Defense Department has reported. Many of these agencies are in danger of missing a March 1999 deadline for compliance, says the Office of Management and Budget.
State agencies are behind, too.
Most California cities and counties also have Y2K plans, but zero budget to pay for them, according to a recent report from the California Association of Local and State CIOs. Forty percent of companies worldwide will experience a mission-critical information technology failure because of the Y2K problem, according to Jim Duggan, a Gartner Group research director. It's the most pressing issue currently facing the nation and the global community. Systems that handle 911 calls could be vulnerable to Y2K glitches, said Bernie Pfeiffer of Bell Atlantic Corp. at a Nov. 16 FCC public forum on Y2K and emergency communications. Y2K war rooms Corporate chief information officers aren't waiting for the feds to get their act together.