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

To: jwk who wrote (3011)	12/23/1998 10:29:00 AM
From: Sawtooth	Respond to of 9818

<<Weather like this just would not be nice for power glitches. People could be inconvenienced.>> As you might know (I don't know where you live) people in the northern great plains would be much more than inconvenienced, jwk. Some would not survive. -30f to -40f (-80f to -100f considering the wind chill) freezes the skin in less than 30 seconds. For many, walking 100 feet is difficult; 100 yards frequently impossible. I've never read of a person losing their life in those conditions by starving to death; it's almost always from exposure. When power was lost for a few days due to an ice storm several years ago, some people I know had to spend the time huddled in small groups under every available quilt, blanket and piece of clothing they could scrounge up. Cars generally don't start and if they do the tires stay frozen out of round unless you travel far enough to warm them up from the road friction. Do not leave your home! is excellent advice and repeated frequently by the news service. If your furnace fails and you don't have a good backup heat supply, you're SOL. Much more than an inconvenience. Which brings me to something I tell a lot of people who ask me about Y2K prep's. I talk a little about setting a little food aside, having some good flashlights and other light sources, maybe some extra blankets, and to consider what they would do if they lost their heating plant. About this point they start to give me one of those "have you started to go off the deep end"-types of looks. I then ask them what they (and most people) do when they hear a forecast for a nasty blizzard rolling in, or a flood watch, or a possible tornado. They, of course, take action to make sure they are reasonably prepared. They join in the big lines at the grocery store and the gas station; considering themselves to be among the prudent. Those they would view as reckless and irresponsible would be those who, knowing that a forecast for a possible winter storm or blizzard has been issued, did nothing to make sure their families were at least minimally prepared for the event. At that point I ask them if preparing for possible Y2K ramifications is much different, other than the nature of the event? In other words, why is it prudent to prepare for a possible loss of heat/food/light/... when a blizzard warning is issued, yet "off the deep end" if one makes the same prep's for possible Y2K induced difficulties in the dead of winter next year ('99 - 2000). For that matter, wouldn't it always be smart to have reasonable provisions on hand? Do power outages occur only when there is a blizzard, a Y2K problem, some other forecast event? Yes, they say; they never looked at it that way. But they always agree at the end. OK; I'm off my soapbox, jwk. I know I'm likely preaching to the converted, anyway. Thanks for being a great listener! ; ) I hope you have a great holiday season. ...Tim