We found some areas of vulnerability, but we're going to keep working on it over the next year, testing other scenarios. It's an ongoing effort, but we'll be ready and in good shape by Dec. 31, 1999.

During the year everybody is tested one way or another. We are testing from August through May.

We have to get student testing done by the end of the week and then testing companies pick tests up on Monday, so we are one a tight schedule.

You want to have a highly competent control team, not just operationally but technologically, that can set up the exercise and devise the scenarios while keeping the normal group completely in the dark about what's going on. That independence ensures that the emergency team is not over-prepared and ready with all the right answers. You want them to be surprised because that's how it could be during the real event.

We're fairly familiar with dealing with natural disasters, and we had a major regional electrical outage a few years back. So our people are fairly familiar with the need to be prepared for anything. That certainly helps us out.

We've had it for a few months. We're testing it to see the effectiveness.