Ethiopian Review

LINCOLN — Mylar balloons, the kind that cost about $5, might have been the party poopers that ruined Monday’s launch of the state’s new multimillion-dollar driver’s license system.

At least that’s the leading theory.

A state administrator said foil balloons certainly could have been the cause of a Sunday power surge in downtown Lincoln. She said she was more concerned with restoring the ability to issue driver’s licenses than tracking down the source of the problem.

“We can’t exactly get a complete pinpoint on it,” said Beverly Neth, director of the Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles. “Our goal is to get everything back up by Wednesday. I’m confident we’ll be back up.”

The state’s driver’s license stations all closed Monday, halting the issuance of any driver’s licenses or identification cards and postponing the launch of a new, more secure system of issuing licenses until at least Wednesday.

More than 4,000 such licenses or cards are issued daily, Neth said.

The new system, designed to foil identity thieves and meet security challenges of the post-9/11 world, will cost the state $2.9 million in lease and setup costs this fiscal year.

The power outage timing fits the aerial foil “terrorist attack” theory.

Neth said the computer problems occurred between 6:50 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Sunday — as crews from the state and its contractor, L-1 Identity Solutions of Stamford, Conn., were installing the new system at the State Office Building in downtown Lincoln and the driver’s license stations.

At 7:24 p.m. Sunday, downtown Lincoln experienced a couple of brief power “blinks” after some metallic helium-filled balloons struck a power line near Ninth and L Streets, said Russ Reno, a spokesman for the Lincoln Electric System.

Reno said such balloons are hazardous to power lines and cause computers to briefly shut down and restart.

“Someone who was having a good time and decided to let some balloons go was the cause of any problems we had in the State Office Building,” he said.

At least two authorities on computers and electric systems expressed surprise that a state computer system had been victimized by a surge or outage.

While it’s difficult to prevent damage from lightning strikes — which Neth said wasn’t the case Sunday — it is not difficult to have equipment to prevent damage from other types of power surges, said Larry Smith, president of National Electrical Seminars, an Omaha firm that offers continuing education for enforcement of electrical codes.

A consulting engineer, Smith said, should have built in adequate protection against power surges when installing the new computer system.

Charles Daniel, computer administrator for the computer science department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, also expressed surprise that a power surge had felled a sensitive state computer system.

A spokeswoman with L-1 Identity Solutions acknowledged Monday that power surge problems are not common for the company, which provides similar systems for more than 30 states.

Carlos Castillo Jr., director of the Nebraska Department of Administrative Services, said the State Office Building is equipped with “breakers” to prevent power-surge damage, but additional protection is up to individual state agencies.

Neth said DMV computers were equipped with uninterruptible power supply (UPS) devices, which are designed to provide a stable supply of electricity and prevent computer damage in the event of a short power outage or voltage surge.

Gary Aerts, interim associate vice chancellor of information services at UNL, said the problem could have been poor protection — or just a fluke.

Neth said the surge knocked out the connection between the state’s main-frame computer and the computer system used by counties, where the DMV satellite offices are housed.

State workers and contractors, working through the weekend, had taken down the old driver’s license system and were downloading software and testing computers on the new system when the surge occurred.

The state had intended to have its 13 full-time licensing stations — including four in Omaha — up and running Monday. Part-time stations in the rest of the state were to be operational by Wednesday.

In south Omaha, Rob Risolvato was wondering when he would be able to renew his license.

He got to the door of the motor vehicles licensing station at 4202 S. 50th St. Monday only to see a sign saying licensing services were down.

“My license expires Aug. 2,” Risolvato said. “They tell you to come down in advance, so this is going to put that back.”

- By Paul Hammel | Omaha World Herald