State gets ready for unexpected

Friday, Dec. 10, 1999 | 11:13 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Out-of-control crowds on the Las Vegas Strip set fire to the palm trees, locks on the cell doors at the state prisons spring open and tourists are trapped by a snow slide at Lake Tahoe.

Those were some of the simulated emergencies that played out Thursday in a test of contingency plans the state has to deal with the unexpected on New Year's Eve and the dawn of the new millennium.

Local governments in Clark, Washoe and Douglas counties posed various problems to see if the state could respond with aid if cities and counties are overwhelmed.

Kamala Carmazzi, deputy chief of the state Division of Emergency Management, said the state has to be ready to handle rioting, fires or other emergencies that the local governments can't cope with.

"Everything went well," Carmazzi said. "We did not resolve all the incidents, but we learned what else we need to do to end up with a cohesive team to be in place Dec. 31."

Marlene Lockard, director of the state Department of Information and Technology, said contingency plans were tested in case the power and the computers are out.

For instance, the state has pre-printed the checks to pay welfare recipients, Medicaid clients and state workers if the state's computer system crashes at the start of the new millennium.

One scenario has a Y2K computer glitch opening the cells for all state prisoners. The solution is for the prison to be ready with guards to manually lock the cell doors.

She said the tests were successful.

Emergency crews will be on duty on the New Year's weekend, Carmazzi said.

"We will begin 12 hour shifts at 8 a.m. on Dec. 31 and continue as needed," she said.

Gov. Kenny Guinn hopes everything is in place but expressed concerns about the unexpected.

"They can say they are ready, but I don't know what is going to happen. I would hope mechanically or technologically, we're ready.

"But you never know what people are going to do, so we will have National Guard people on duty."

Emergency plans have been drafted to help the elderly if the power goes out.

"In cold weather, we don't want our seniors to have their power or their gas cut off because it could be dangerous," Guinn said.

The state is working with utilities on "a lifeline process" to make sure the elderly don't suffer if emergencies hit.

Even if things go well on New Year's Eve in Las Vegas, Guinn said there must be plans when the thousands of tourists head home on the highways and create bumper-to-bumper traffic. In the event of fatal accidents, there are plans to have coroners in position.

"You cannot move that body and you cannot move that car until the coroner gets there," Guinn said. "So there are plans to have coroners available at certain spots so they can get on a helicopter and have them there (at the accidence scene) in less than 30 minutes.

"People (motorists) will start jumping curves and going around. You can't expect them to sit there for three to four hours because they can't move the body."

Another scenario has computers crashing and knocking out monitoring devices on prisoners who are under house arrest.

"You won't be able to tell if they're home or not," Guinn said.