Y2K Home Preparedness Is A Family Affair

October 27, 1998: 12:04 a.m. ET

CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA, U.S.A. (NB) -- By Robert MacMillan, Newsbytes.

The Yourdon family is betting that Year 2000 date change problems not only will affect businesses' and the government's computer systems, but that it will strike in the heart of suburbia as well.

Carrying the torch lit by Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Problem Chairman Robert Bennett, R-Utah, Ed Yourdon, his daughter Jennifer, and the Y2K Solutions Group Inc., have released a video and are developing a Web site designed "to show the average suburban dweller how to prepare for possible service disruptions in the delivery of electricity, food, water, telephone, etc."

The Yourdons are predicting problems to occur for approximately two weeks to four weeks after computers all over the world face the possibility of failing after their internal clocks fail to recognize their two-digit reading as "2000" and instead read simply "00." The video and Web site offer preparedness procedures for problems of at least one year, however.

The Yourdons, along with the Y2K Solutions Group and "preparedness expert" James Talmage Stevens, have set up a Web site at http://www.readyfory2k.com , which accompanies the video "Ed Yourdon's Year 2000 Home Preparation Guide: Your Home, Your Family, Yourself."

The Yourdons also have written the book "Time Bomb 2000." Stevens is the author of "Making the Best of Basics: Family Preparedness Handbook." He also wrote the imaginatively titled book "Don't Get Caught With Your Pantry Down," which offers resources and information on "the preparedness industry."

According to Stevens and the Yourdons, "Their approach to the Y2K problem is neither 'doom and gloom,' nor complacency, but rather assumes the possibility of a temporary break in the infrastructure that delivers essential services and goods."

The Website offers information and links to Year 2000-related Websites, and also features several survival companies and food vendors that offer discounts and free gifts if people order supplies through Yourdon's site.

Following on Bennett's statement to "Pay attention to the things that are vulnerable in your life and make contingency plans," the site offers weekly tips, charts for determining families' needs for food and water, heat and light, as well as safety concerns.

Copies of the video also come with a "Year 2000 Preparedness Catalog" that carries food storage products and solar flashlight offers, as well as many other survivalist necessities.

The site also offers discussion topics such as food and water storage.

"In this situation, you can't just go by the (Federal Emergency Management Agency) or Red Cross guidelines," Stevens said. "You must consider many other things. Does your thermostat or heating system have a chip that may fail and leave you without heat in the middle of winter? Should you get several months' supplies of essential prescription medicines? Will you need extra cash in case there are banking or ATM (automated teller machine) problems? These are problems specific only to Y2K, not other common emergencies."

Copyright ) 1998 Cable News Network, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

-- Gayla Dunbar (privacy@please.com), October 28, 1998

Answers

Thanks for the post Gayla. It's good to see the Yourdons reported as being somewhat middle-of-the-road on Y2K. All this talk about no oxygen for 500 years was starting to get to me.

It's also nice to see an intelligent article originating from the intelligence center of North Carolina, i.e. Chapel Hill. Too many people are under the mistaken impression that the center of intelligence in N.C. resides at the University of New Jersey at Durham (WOOPS....Duke Univ.)

-- John Howard (Greenville, NC) (pcdir@prodigy.net), October 29, 1998.

Yeah.......that's good Gayla. I find myself falling into a Yourdonish camp mindset (I will not define "Yourdonish camp mindset" except to say that it is in no way related to the concept of binary stakeholder value-driven pop tarts). It will be very serious but we will still have oxygen. Five hundred years without oxygen would be rather inconvenient. The first 30 or 40 seconds wouldn't be too problematic and after about 2 minutes I probably wouldn't be whining too much. It's the time frame after the first 30 or 40 seconds and before the 2 minute point that is a real bugger.

Perception is everything in one respect. To the average guy on the street I am a Y2K doomsayer but to many here I am a Pollyanna. I guess you can't please everybody.........

I'll leave with this insightful gem for all to consider........

'Semolina Pilchard, climbing up the Eiffel Tower'

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), October 29, 1998.

Gayla,

Thanks! I'm looking forward to the web site. Maybe I can steer some of my family that way.

Hey, John, the key to "no oxygen for 500 years" is really shallow breathing : ) although breathing this way for 500 years seems a bit optimistic!

I'm in the same thinking as the Yourdons as well. I know there will be disruptions directly related to y2k. The disruptions I really fear are those created by the reaction to y2k by the unprepared masses. THAT is where I become worried. So, if efforts such as those of the Yourdons can reduce these possible impacts I'd immediately become much more optimistic.

GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!! ------------------------------------------------------------

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), October 29, 1998.

Thanks Gayla and thanks to the Yourdons.

This is a much needed service for the vast majority who would never be able to "bug-out" even if they wanted to.

-- Buddy Y. (DC) (buddy@bellatlantic.net), October 29, 1998.