JUNEAU -- Computer users know that sinking feeling when they hit a wrong key or a program suddenly and without warning suffers a fatal error, and the file they have been laboring over is gone.
Now, imagine what that would feel like for a computer technician at the Alaska Department of Revenue performing routine maintenance on disk drives that contain hundreds of thousands of electronic images with applicant information for one of state residents' most cherished perks -- the yearly payout from the Alaska Permanent Fund, the state's $38 billion oil-funded savings account.
While reformatting the disk drive, the technician mistakenly reformatted the backup drive as well and, suddenly, all the data were gone.
But the dread didn't really set in until the department turned to its third fail-safe, backup tapes that are updated nightly, only to find those tapes were unreadable.
"Nobody panicked, but we instantly went into planning for the worst-case scenario," said Permanent Fund Dividend Division Director Amy Skow about a computer snafu in July that ended up costing the department more than $200,000.
Over the next few days, as the department, the division and consultants from Microsoft and Dell computers labored to retrieve the information, it became obvious the worst-case scenario was at hand.
Nine months worth of data was gone: some 800,000 electronic images that had been painstakingly scanned into the system months earlier, the 2006 paper applications that people had either mailed in or filed over the counter and supporting documentation such as birth certificates and proof of residence.
And the only backup was the paperwork itself stored in more than 300 cardboard boxes.
"We had to bring that paper back to the scanning room and send it through again, and quality-control it, and then you have to have a way to link that paper to that person's file," said Skow.
Half a dozen seasonal workers from earlier in the year came back to assist the regular division staff, and about 70 people working overtime and weekends re-entered all the lost data into the system by the end of August.
"They were just ready, willing and able to chip in and, in fact, we needed all of them to chip in to get all the paperwork rescanned in a timely manner so that we could meet our obligations to the public," said Skow.
Last October and November, they met those obligations, and a majority of the estimated 600,000 payments for last year's $1,106.96 dividend went out on schedule, including those for 28,000 applicants who were still under review when the disaster struck.
Former Revenue Commissioner Bill Corbus said no one was ever blamed for the incident.
"Everybody felt very bad about it and we all learned a lesson. There was no witch hunt," said Corbus.
According to department staff, they now have a proven and regularly tested backup and restore procedure. Skow said the failure of the backup tapes was attributed to an error in the instructions.
"Had a full scale backup restore test been run prior to the July incident, the error in the recovery directions would have been discovered and rectified," Skow said.
The department is asking lawmakers to approve a supplemental budget request for $220,700 to cover the excess costs incurred in the six-week disaster recovery effort, including about $128,400 in overtime and $71,800 for computer consultants.
The money would come from Permanent Fund earnings, the money earmarked for the dividends. That means recipients could find their next checks docked by about 37 cents.
