Oil giant Unocal is taking Y2K seriously, advising its employees in an internal bulletin to avoid air travel as the new year rings in, and to review family home emergency plans.
What follows is a complete text of the bulletin obtained by WorldNetDaily, e-mailed to executives last Friday. It includes a caution to be prepared for “problems” with “some public utilities and some businesses.”
From: NEWSLINE
Sent: Friday, October 15, 1999 9:20 AM
To: EVERYONE ALABAMA CHUNCHULA; EVERYONE ALASKA Anchorage; EVERYONE
ALASKA Arness; EVERYONE ALASKA CIPL; EVERYONE ALASKA EFDF; EVERYONE ALASKA
Kenai Chem; EVERYONE ALASKA Kenai Oil; EVERYONE ALASKA Offshore; EVERYONE
ALASKA Swanson River; EVERYONE ATLANTA; EVERYONE BEAUMONT; EVERYONE CIPL;
EVERYONE DECATUR; EVERYONE EDMONDS; EVERYONE ELSEGUNDO; EVERYONE FIT;
EVERYONE FRESNO; EVERYONE HARTLEY CENTER; EVERYONE HOFFMAN ESTATES;
EVERYONE HOUMA; EVERYONE LAFAYETTE; EVERYONE LAFAYETTE SMTP; EVERYONE
LEMONT; EVERYONE LAFAYETTE; EVERYONE LAFAYETTE SMTP; EVERYONE LEMONT;
EVERYONE LAFAYETTE; EVERYONE LAFAYETTE SMTP; EVERYONE LEMONT
Subject: Y2K Readiness: What should you do?
Internal Bulletin
Y2K Readiness: What should you do?
As the year 2000 approaches, Unocal’s Y2K team is confident that the company has addressed the vast majority of problems that might arise and made plans for responding to any malfunctions that may occur.
The team is now completing plans for a reporting system to be used in the first 24 hours of the new year. All Unocal facilities will be required to report Y2K-related incidents or anomalies to one of three regional reporting centers, in Bangkok, Brea and Lafayette. The Brea center will consolidate and analyze the reports, tracking any problems
that occur as the new year arrives in Asia and issuing alerts to other facilities that might face the same kind of problems as the midnight hour moves around the world.
Unocal’s approach to Y2K has been to identify potential problems in its critical systems and remediate those; develop contingency plans for unanticipated failures in Unocal operations or in those of critical business partners; and to handle any smaller, non-critical problems as they surface.
What you can do at home
So what should you do in your household? You might want to consider the same sort of approach that Unocal has taken. While the United States and several other countries where Unocal has offices and operations have taken a thorough approach to Y2K readiness, some public utilities and some businesses may still have problems. This may be a good time to review your family’s home emergency plans. The Red Cross recommends preparing for this event as you would if a major storm were heading your way.
* Have critical supplies on hand — water, nonperishable food, prescription medicines, flashlights, portable radio, first aid kit
* Keep a small reserve of cash in a safe place, as well as important family documents and financial papers
And, if you haven’t already done so, contact the manufacturers of your computer, software, home security and fire alarm systems to determine if these are Y2K-ready.
Travel recommendation
The company is recommending that non-essential air travel be avoided on Jan. 1, 2000, including long-distance flights that may begin earlier but continue on New Year’s Day. Although there is no evidence of specific safety concerns, the potential exists for some date-related problems that could cause delays, flight cancellations, or problems with baggage handling. If you must travel, you may want to review the US Department of Transportation website, providing updates on the aviation systems of about 90 countries: http://www.y2ktransport.dot.gov/fly2k/
For more information about how you can be Y2K-ready, check out these websites:
* American Red Cross — http://www.redcross.org/disaster/safety/Y2K.html
* Federal Emergency Management Administration — http://www.fema.gov/y2k/
You might also want to look at the US State Department’s website for information on how countries around the world are preparing: http://travel.state.gov/y2kca.html
NEWSLINE, produced for employees by PR & Communications in El Segundo, is archived on the SeventySix Home Page at http://st.unocal.com/76.
