Someone raised the point that they don't think people living in the cities would leave them. I think they'd leave in a New York minute if they thought there might be some food somewhere else. What would you do? If you were in a city in which the supply system had broken down and no more food was being brought into the city, would you just stay there and starve? I know this won't be a representative of the general population, but it might illustrate the point that very few people are dumb enough to sit and starve if they think there may be some food elsewhere.

-- Noah Simoneaux (noaj@yournet.com), January 28, 1999

Answers

SOP (standar op. proc.) in these circumstances is to lock down the cities - no in 'n out privileges. BTW, Best way out - follow rail lines, use a boat, hanglider, microlight etc.

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), January 28, 1999.

I can't say what I'd do. I've always felt trapped in a city, I avoid going in them if I can, I don't go in the city 15 miles away more than 2-4 times a year. I already feel trapped in the subburbs as it is.

I guess if I was stuck in a city with no food, I'd plow my way out somehow. Better die trying than starving.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), January 28, 1999.

Thought I'd tough it out in the city. But everyday I inch closer to rural. It had not occurred to me about the "no in, no out" problem. The driving nail was trying to get to my friends house this morning to help her out with tornado clean-up and being shooed away by police and national guard...couldn't get in, couldn't call her. Needed drivers license that said I lived at her house. Perhaps I should rent a post office box in rural Arkansas prior to getting my drivers' license renewed (that is if my state doesn't have Y2K problems with renewing it).

-- Other Lisa (LisaWard2@aol.com), January 28, 1999.

I like cities. But not what the people do to them, and to each other:

" Later in the war, Pa was inducted into the military anyway. After he survived the battle at Dieppe, he was transferred to Regensburg to work in the Messerschmidt factories. We moved there also and shortly thereafter to neighboring Regenstauf. Not long after that our apartment was bombed, so we moved again, to the village of Diesenbach. Here we resided in the dance hall of a beergarden restaurant. The Fuehrers Drang nach Osten, Push to the East, had been reversed and caused a severe housing shortage, even though now there werent as many living people as before. "

" I remember hurrying to a bomb shelter with Ma, and only with Ma. Someone must have dragged Siggi off into another hole in the ground. Or he was forgotten and Pa was not there. Running through the siren- titillated air, we passed a big house. A woman, presumably the owner, ran from it carrying two blooming flowerpots across the street. Ma yelled at her because a firebomb hit her attic. We did not care that much for flowers and kept on running to our hellhole in the ground.

When the sirens told us that it was OK to come back out, we came back out to a conflagration in which the flower-pot-less house was now also burning to the ground. Two men were pulling firewood away from its wall, to save it, to make fires of their own when it got cold and there was nothing left to make fires with.

Whenever I heard air raid sirens from my left side and always only from my left side, I started screaming. They announced the beginning of joy, or the beginning of terror, depending if one were flying high or scurrying on the ground. It could be a religious experience in either place; I would have preferred to have it in the air, but had no way to get there. So I settled for the underground inspiration instead. With Dante in Hades. "

-- TTF (seenit@ww2.com), January 28, 1999.

My b-in-law is a programmer who WORKS in Chicago. He's on Y2K duty. Part of his job is disaster recovery. He has been told that he is expected to be on duty over the date change. He is supposed to leave his wife and two kids in the boonies and stay in town. If TSHTF, I have no idea how he will get out.

-- Sue (conibear@gateway.net), January 28, 1999.

Sue, I too work in Downtown Chicago in the IS field. I live 45 mi out of the city. I am not afraid. We will not be entering a Police State on 1/1/00. Even if there were serious problems it would take a few days or more for cities to be closed. That is ridiculous even saying it. Sure there will probably be problems but the people who work on them don't quit and go home. Things may slow down but they will get fixed or replaced. People lets get a reality check!!!

-- thebig redone (thebigredone@hotmail.com), January 28, 1999.