Good Grim report,compliments of Andy, who doesn't want anyone to read them!< Blackout in Chicago Is Called a Y2K Exercise by Victims
dailynews.yahoo.com.
When a blackout hit Chicago this week, a hotel employee handed out "glow sticks" to guests with these words: ''Welcome to our Y2K preparedness party.''
This indicates that the idea that y2k could shut down operations is trickling into the public's consciousness.
How many glow sticks do you think there are in inventory?
That's the problem. There is no way for the public to buy the items they need for their private inventories because just-in-time production/distribution doesn't have large inventories.
Sure, you and I can stock up this month, but that's because most people procrastinate. Their denial is our opportunity. But denial will not last forever. Not when comments like this are gaining acceptance, even as jokes.
Banks shut down in Chicago. Police stations went to emergency generators.
It was a y2k preparedness party.
This is a Reuters story on YAHOO! (Aug. 12).
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Power outages hit two areas in and near downtown Chicago Thursday, sending workers streaming from buildings and forcing one big hotel to dip into its 2000 emergency supplies to fight the darkness.
Power was restored after more than an hour in the most densely populated area affected and no injuries were reported.
But during the height of the problems buses bulged with people trying to get home and police directed crawling traffic through intersections without traffic signals.
''Welcome to our Y2K preparedness party,'' said Robert Allegrini, spokesman for the 1,543-room Chicago Hilton and Towers as he helped pass out chemically activated ''glow sticks'' to guests. The hotel gave out 6,000 sticks which it had on hand for possible power outages linked to turn-of-the-century computer problems this coming New Year's Eve. . . .
Power was later restored to the hotel and the rest of an area covering 30 square blocks from the center of the downtown ''Loop'' southward, and which had less than an hour's notice that power would be cut off.
But other parts of the city remained dark and officials said they hoped to restore power everywhere by Friday morning.
The blackout triggered an angry outburst from Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, who pointedly chastised the utility while urging downtown office workers to conserve power and go home early. . . .
Commonwealth Edison chairman John Rowe called the outage ''totally unacceptable,'' and said the utility would speed up system improvements it has promised to perform.
During the blackout, banks and exchanges in the city's financial center lost power for a time and the city's police headquarters operated on emergency generators.
The Chicago Board of Trade, the largest U.S. futures market, stopped trading early after warnings of the second blackout were issued. . . .
The weather, which was cool and rainy, played no part in the disruptions that hit when three of four transformers at a substation near the city's center went off-line.
One of the transformers had been undergoing repairs for the past week and two other transformers shut down, leaving one working. Two high-voltage cables also failed. . . .
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