25 years since the scare of Y2K

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) — Twenty-five years ago, emergency managers and computer programmers were among those anticipating the effects of “Y2K.”

Experts were concerned that the arrival of the 21st century could cause critical infrastructure to shut down because some computers weren’t designed to operate past 1999.

Former North Dakota Governor Ed Schafer supervised the state’s emergency response plans at the National Guard headquarters in Bismarck.

Schafer says, “A lot of doomsday conversation out there. Nobody knew what was going to go on. It was the turn of the century and it was a real difficult time. Technology was still new. We talked about airplanes falling out of the sky, escalators stopping, elevators dropping. Things were tough, so we headed to the bunker. There’s a secure bunker that the governor has access to.”

He says luckily, social media was still in its infancy so the amount of false information was kept to a minimum.

Schafer says, “You know, the internet today is full of conspiracy theories and people jump to conclusions without any factual base at all. There at least, you had some filters. While there was a lot of information flow that there was going to be problems, but really, it was unknown if there were going to be problems.”

Schafer says after reports started coming in from earlier time zones, everyone knew it would be okay.