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Technology Stocks : Discuss Year 2000 Issues -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Mansfield who wrote (899)	1/15/1998 3:22:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9818

Surviving the ICE storm in Canada; feeling of 1/1/2000 From C.S.Y2K; thanks to Mike Fletcher. John -------- Living in a small community just south of Ottawa Ontario, I just got to experience Y2K first hand and two years early! It was (in fact still is) called the great Ice Storm of 1998). We lost power on and off for three days, then off for six days non-stop. Living in a house with a septic system and well also meant that when the power went off we also had no water, so used excess from the sump pump and then started melting snow to fill toilet tanks etc. Figure that when the lights go out you would just adjust your schedule to the daylight hours? Well think again. Night falls at 5.30 here (45 degrees north), and candles don't throw much light. The problem is that if you go to bed even at 7.30 p.m., daylight doesn't arrive until twelve hours later, 7.30 a.m. That's a long time to occupy with needlepoint etc. I have got a LOT more respect for the pioneers up here, in fact I don't know how some of them survived. So we got to feel what it would be like when the power system goes down for an extended period of time (a la Y2K). But when you look at it closely, Jan 1 2000 will probably be a lot worse. 1) Telecommunications and transportation was working fine for about 80% of the homes affected. So even if you had no power, many places could still at least stay in touch in some way. On The Day, these systems may also be screwing up in erratic ways, so the sub-systems that helped overcome the disruption from the storm itself may also be in black hole at the start of 2000. 2) Problem was easily identified (like 5,000 downed hydro poles). Problem with Y2K is that they won't know where (i.e.what chips) are responsible. Not only does this make the whole problem tougher to fix, it also makes the whole process of telling people when power will be restored almost impossible (and believe you me, knowing that the end of freezing cold is coming is VERY important psychologically). 3) Spares (poles, food, beds, generators brought in from all over North America (and MANY thanks indeed). The problem is that on The Day in 2000, everyone will be in the same boat, so there won't be spares to shift around. 4 Move into technology has increased risk. 80 years ago farmers and farmhands could have milked 100 head of cattle. Now there is just the farmer and his milking machine, and guess what - he was in big trouble. As well, for all of us used to working with computers, we all ground to a halt. All names and addresses on computer (not accessible), calendars, e-mail contact and no Internet (sob). I was TOTALLY unproductive for 10days (no snide comments please), but it truly was very disruptive to usual life habits and very disconcerting psychologically The only good news is that no one was prepared for the Ice Storm, whereas they can get more stuff into stock prior to Jan 1 2000 because it is predictable. But believe you me, this was NO fun as a taste of things to come. Comments, feedback welcomed. This'll be developed further into a column for my web site (www.highspin.com) and whatever media will pick it up. I'm on a one-man Y2K mission up here. Fletch