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To: Secret_Agent_Man who wrote (9023)	11/28/1998 10:06:00 PM
From: Secret_Agent_Man	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10786

By Adam L. Penenberg global.forbes.com dated in may When Gerald Walker decided to relocate, he looked for a good place to hide. Not from assassins or thugs or even the police, but from a bug. Not just any bug: a computer bug. Walker, who last November bought a home in rural San Jaoquin Valley, Calif., is part of a growing movement of computer professionals, entrepreneurs and religious extremists who are about to quit their jobs and head for the hills because they are convinced that the "millennium bug" will bring on the end of civilization as we know it. This bug will not infect people but it will cause computers to throw a fit when the new decade begins. This is the Year 2000 or Y2K problem, a computer glitch that will cause mainframe computers to see the year 2000 as 1900 and either stop functioning or start spewing some very bad data. Computer programmers are working around the clock to solve this problem, and it is going to be expensive. Gartner Group estimates that companies will end up spending anywhere between $300 and $600 billion to fix the bug. (Click here to learn why these estimates may be too high.) To folks like Walker, who have been lighting up online discussion forums dedicated to the Y2K problem, the millennium bug is a prelude to Armageddon. For these believers, many of whom see it as a manifestation of God's wrath against a sinning world, the end is near. When the clock strikes 2000, the nation's electricity will short out, trains won't run, banks will collapse and hordes of urban dwellers will scavenge for food as supplies dwindle. Heritage Farms 2000 promises a safe place to wait out the five or so "turbulent years" after the onset of the millennium. As a result, these hardy souls have begun to establish "safe havens"--Y2K-compliant communes conveniently located near farmland with access to fresh water and their own electric power through local generators, windmills or solar panels. None have yet been built, although some are past the planning stage. Heritage Farms 2000, for instance, slated to be built in Sully County, South Dakota, offers Y2K survivalists five-year leases on half-acre plots for just $10,000. Founder Russ Vorhees, who already owns the land outright, expects the community to be fully functional by mid-1998. Although he is not sure how bad things will get with the onset of the millennium, he says he sees a business opportunity. So why not sell the plots of land? Because time is running out, and leasing plots would make this opportunity available to the greatest number of people in the shortest time. Heritage Farms 2000 promises a safe place with a high-quality of life for individuals and families to wait out the five or so "turbulent years" after the onset of the millennium, Vorhees says. To that end, he plans to offer independent satellite hookups that can ensure Internet access and telephone service. Of course, he assumes that the Internet will survive Armageddon. In Monte Vista, Colo., a Year 2000-compliant safe haven is planned on a 120-acre spread, complete with a business plaza, commercial strip mall and several residential communities, including two with 18-hole golf courses. Alex Gallegos, an attorney and partner in the project, says that the area's abundant sun, water and fertile soil make this an ideal place to set up a Year 2000-compliant community. And in the mountains of southwest Virginia, a planned Christian community called Rivendell has already sold several plots. Naturally, there are those in the material world who look down on this flight. "Panic is the last thing we need," says William Ulrich, president of the Soquel, Calif.-based Tactical Strategy Group and author of The Year 2000 Software Crisis: Challenge of the Century. "All it does is spread fear and, concurrently, drain the population of people who can help fix the problem."