I just had a phone conversation with one of my sons who lives in Kansas, and he mentioned that he and a friend had gone to a recently opened Home Depot store, looking to buy a generator. They were told that the store had no generators for sale right now because they were all on hold for the National Guard and the Red Cross.

I fully realize this falls into the "unconfirmed" category of information, but you can discount it on that basis if you wish. Anyone else in the Wichita and surrounding area of Kansas who has encountered this?

-- Anonymous, January 16, 1999

Answers

I found the Wichita generators story interesting for it might explain what happened at a LOWES hardware store on the north eastside of Indianapolis. On Jan. 10th this store had in stock on the floor about 60 5000watt gas generators at least 75 Keroheat 22,300 BTU kerosene heaters and 6 100# propane tanks. Today which is the 16th I found not one generator or propane tank on the floor! About 45 Keroheat units remained. Now for one thing I have never seen that many generators or kerosene heaters in one store anywhere or at anytime before;EVER! I asked the salesperson working that area of the store what had happened to all his stock. He replied that they simply had all been sold. Let's see thats 60 generators at $499 each or about $30,000 worth sold in less than a week. I wonder who might have that kind of buying power?? Here's the phone number to the store if anyone wants to verify my story it's (317)578-2200. Regards Mark Magers

-- Anonymous, January 16, 1999

I had a conversation with a large Honda dealer in the midwest on Friday. He reported that the Honda Industrial Diesel Generators are backordered for 4 months! The factory availability on the non-diesel generators seems to be OK. The "little" guys that build generators per order and sell them have been backordered for 6 months. However, this is the first that I've officially heard about backorders from a major.

-- Anonymous, January 17, 1999

Good luck finding a generator in Richmond, VA! Sam's Club, Costco & every major store we've visited this week were completely soldout!

One shining exception was our local Northern Handyman (visit them at http://www.northern-online.com/)where we found 2 Generac's & 3 Honda's. When we ordered the North Star 5500 with a Honda engine, we were advised it would take at least three weeks. Given all we've read, we're pleased with three weeks...if in fact it's only three weeks.

Hope this helps! Thanks for your efforts! :) Bob Hummer @ http://www.word-o-mouth.com

-- Anonymous, January 17, 1999

My daughter wanted to buy a small wood burning/cooking stove. Price about $100. True Value said they sold theri last one but could order the sotve. She asked the clerk if it was because of Y2k. He laughed but would not answer. When he looked it up to order, the clerk said there were only 35 left. He did not say if this meant 35 for his store or 35 for all True Value. Rural King also sold out and would not be getting any more. This is in Western Ky.

-- Anonymous, January 17, 1999

This is from Y2k News Magazine

Delaware/New Jersey - Cape May, New Years 2000 celebrations cancelled due to "government Agencies" putting a hold on all, I'm presuming, large capacity generators.

http://www.newszap.com/118b.html

-- Anonymous, January 18, 1999

This is an update to my posting on January 17th. Having been advised of a 3 week delivery time, I called today to check the status of my generator. I was advised there are more than 25 people in line in front of me for the same model...it'll be at least another 8 weeks! Hmmmm...

-- Anonymous, January 25, 1999

I noticed Home Depot in Charlotte, NC was out of generators a few weeks ago. They normally have five to ten in stock. After reading of gen. shortages I popped in to Northern to check on supplies. They normally have a good dozen or more on hand at all times. They were down to about four smaller units. I asked about the sales of them and was told it was because of y2k. I was also told that 80% of their phone calls lately are about generators.

I purchased a 9.5KW generator head and am shopping for an engine. I drove to the warehouse to pick up my gen. head. I was told they might make a mistake and sell it to someone else. They only had two in stock.

In choosing an engine I could go either diesel or for a tri-fuel engine. The diesel engine costs maybe twice as much but the fuel is safer to store in volume. With tri-fuel I'd think about a smaller supply of gasoline and hope the natural gas pipeline functions.

Anyone got any advice on the status of the natural gas infra-structure?

-- Anonymous, January 25, 1999