Today, the State of Hawaii had a briefing/news conference on their Y2K status. KITV - the ABC affiliate covered it in their 6:00 evening news. Both KITV's reporter and news anchor made the point of saying that when Kazu Hayashita (the State's Transportation Director) went on camera and said that the State is 50% done with Y2K, that that was the same statement made by the State Comptroller 11 MONTHS AGO!

Also, the state is working with FEMA and will conduct "training exercises" starting in March '99. Hawaii civil defense went on camera recommending a survival kit with canned foods, bottled water, flashlights and batteries. Civil defense also says that they are currently working on plans for the "possibility" of no electricity and essential services.

KITV ended this segment with both the reporter and news anchor emphasizing the state's statement of 50% completion, both today and 11 months ago... hoping that SOME progress had been made in the last 11 months.

http://www.kitv.com/scripts/whole/990119tue6pm.txt

-- Russell (Oh Boy@y2k.com), January 20, 1999

Answers

First the mainstream news, then the "coconut wireless." It won't take long before people start stocking up on rice, spam, canned soup, etc. Better to do it now than later, when lack of supplies on the mainland affects the islands.

Comments from a previous WDC Weather Report (Cory Hamasaki): "Problem is if only ~1% of the people are preparing now and the supply chain is overburdened, adding only another 1% will crush it. Come May-June of 99 your chances of buying any long term foods will be minimal. So then people will start stocking canned goods and dog food. Not guaranteed, but there is a distinct possibility that we could start seeing food shortages at the local grocery stores by July-Aug 99 as everyone starts buying ten extra cans of food a week. . . "

People (well, some people at least) are stocking up on canned food and pet food (cat food in our case) now. And, if you're worried about supply chains, don't even think about living in Hawaii. Just imagine that you'd have to get used to grocery stores being out of things on a daily basis. Not usually bread or rice, but most good priced sales items after about day 3 of the sale.

Maren

(who had to wait 6 weeks for a new fridge after hurricane Iniki, because everything got shipped to Kauai first. I've done 'living in the tropics without refrigeration'. Can you say: been there, done that?)

Weather Report #102

-- Suzy (howdy@do.da), January 20, 1999.