If you can ignore any of my previous statements on this forum for a moment, I would like to make one that I think is decidedly neutral as to possible outcomes of the Y2K problem.

There are many people mentioning storing gasoline, kerosene, propane, etc. in large quantities. It scares me to think that one of my neighbors might be doing so. Some might not care that it is illegal to do this in many places, since they believe it necessary.

One cannot store a dangerous fuel in any old 55 gallon drum. For that matter, you'd better be careful about the types of containers used for water as well. Please, if you are planning to store large quantities of fuel, do your research well.

I would hate to see local disasters caused by people preparing for a perceived global one.

-- Buddy Y. (buddy@bellatlantic.net), September 07, 1998

Answers

Good point! And all it would take is a couple of "Y2K survivalist nutcase" incidents to get blown (pun) out of proportion to cause a lot of hardship on folks that are trying to prepare. Lets be careful out there ....

-- Joe (shar@pei.com), September 08, 1998.

I'm glad to be in complete agreement with Buddy for a change. Let's not blow up the neighborhood.

I would only add that the DOE permitting process, which allows the federal government to take inventory of privately owned fuel stores, only aggravates the situation. When people are required to draw a map to their fuel, they rightly conclude that in any situation that they really need it, "the government" will need it too, and it will be vulnerable to confiscation. Therefore, you get a lot of folks stacking up or burying inadequate fuel drums, not wanting to draw attention by having a proper tank installed. Understandable - but dangerous!

-- E. Coli (nunayo@beeswax.com), September 08, 1998.

OIK...so what's the safest, most "un-confiscate-able" method to employ? We are probably getting a diesel generator... hence, diesel fuel.

-- Sara Nealy (keithn@ptd.net), September 09, 1998.