I was wondering if anyone has experiences that are similar to possible y2k disturbances. I'll share first. While visiting relatives in a small Texas town over Easter, a power outage occurred in part of the small town. I was unaware of this and headed to the local HEB(the only large grocery in town) to buy milk. When I arrived I found all refrigerated frozen sections under tarps or locked in effort to keep everything cold until the electric came back on. Several people were asking in impatient, borderline angry, voices when the y would be able to buy refrigerated items. The poor clerk was saying, "Well they told us the electricity would be back on in a hour." Anyway, I thought I would try the convenience store. All lights were out there and when I asked if I could buy milk, the reply was "Sure, if you have exact change. Our cash register won't work without electricity." Fortuanately, I did have correct change. When I got in the car I said to my husband, "Well there's a little taste of y2k for you."

-- Susan C (jclont@mastnet.net), April 17, 1998

Answers

"A Taste of Y2K" seems to have been provided to many people over the past year. Let's list a few of them:

1. Auckland, NZ - unbelievably long power outage 2. UP/SP Merger - major bottlenecks of rails coast to coast 3. Mid-West - Power outage due to ice (some folks up to 2 weeks) 4. Northeast & Canada - Power outage (weeks again) 5. Is it my imagination or are we having a huge number of "natural" disasters? I guess it is still the El Nino effects but the West coast was pounded all fall and now the southeast is being pounded all spring. 6. The AT&T phone switches were down for a few hours this past week. 7. ??? - I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting.

Personally, I believe God is "blessing" us with some foretaste of this thing.

Rod Swab Year 2000 - Countdown to Calamity http://www.bigo.net/reswab

PS> I was reading recently and was chilled to read that in three of the four years following the 1929 crash we had drought across the midwestern states (aka "breadbasket").

-- Rod Swab (reswab@bigo.net), April 18, 1998.

I would like to hear from some of you folks from S Carolina and Forida who experienced extended periods of power and telephone black outs resulting from the hurricanes. I heard that looting was extensive in Florida but not so much in Charleston.

-- Bill Solorzano (notaclue@webtv.net), April 21, 1998.

Here are a few examples of bug bytes. Http://www.nypostonline.com/070498/business/3862.htm

-- Kay P (y2kay@usa.net), July 08, 1998.

I actually have had 3 previews.

1. Seattle's surprise snow storm in Dec. 1990. Power and phones downn. Cars abandoned everywhere in the city because of road conditions. People stranded in their offices, etc. When I finally was able to walk to the nearest supermarket, the shelves were almost empty. A week of hell in the middle of winter.

2. Los Angeles earthquake in 1994. Power, water and phones out. Fortunately, I had enough supplies, so I didn't need to go to the market, but there must have been some shortages. I don't really remember.

3. Los Angeles riots in 1992 (?). Thugs began attacking people and looting and burning in the southern area of the city. Then slowly worked their way up toward the west and north. The fire department couldn't be everywhere at once. The police didn't/couldn't do anything at the beginning, just stood by and let it happen. The people in my building and around the neighborhood was forced to protect themselves. A few of my neighbors blocked our building entrance with trash dumps and stood watch in the lobby with guns at the ready. From my balcony, I could see the people from the building across the street doing the same thing and going out carrying shotguns going to protect their stores. The national guard rolled into town. Curfew was imposed. It sure was surreal and scary.

I'm sure I'm missing a lot more details, but you get the picture. I'd say I've had quite a taste of Y2K.

-- Sandy (prep4y2k@aol.com), July 15, 1998.