Trouble abroad

Credit state government officials for spending time and money to try to correct the Year 2000 millennium software bug problem in our state’s software systems. Don Groves, chief bank examiner of the Bureau of Banking, for instance, recently made it clear that Maine banks and credit unions are all satisfactorily prepared. On a national scale, most studies suggest minimal interruptions and inconveniences and no scenarios in which the world ends with a bang, whimper or otherwise.

But take heart Y2K prophets of doom, because outside our national borders, Russia and other formerly communist countries have not adequately prepared and are unlikely to do so. These countries don’t have the money; the authors of the original software programs are dead or working elsewhere, or in some cases local governments aren’t even aware there’s a problem. In a wired world, that lack of preparation will be felt everywhere, including Maine.

Robert Maher of the Governor’s Y2K Preparedness Committee suggests three ways Maine could be hurt. One source of trouble may come from petroleum-producing nations, which are not expected to be ready for the new year. That could hamper oil production, drying up supplies of gasoline and heating oil. The petroleum supply sitting in the pipeline will last three months, but according to Mr. Maher, the industry is not stockpiling.

A second way Maine could be affected is through medicine. Many of the pharmaceuticals our hospitals use every day are also made in these unprepared countries. Mr. Maher has spoken to Maine hospitals about storing an adequate supply, and some are cooperating. Nevertheless, patients should consider buying extra amounts of their necessary medications, if they are able to do so.

Third, telecommunications, particularly in central Europe, are expected to create problems — businesses that rely on those markets might be well-served by preparing for the worst. Air-traffic control systems throughout the world rely on computers and software that need to be Y2K compliant, so flying out of this country on the dawn of the new century seems a particularly adventuresome way to spend this holiday. Virgin Airlines, owned by that circumnavigating gadfly Richard Branson, will not be flying on the last day of this year and the first day of the next. Some adventures are just a little too dangerous, even for a celebration with the promise of this one.

With the answers to these problems largely out of Maine’s hands, perhaps the best course is to try to stay healthy, stay home on New Year’s and stoke the woodstove.