Focus on one important thing here. If stuff is even half as bad as most of us think it is with food being unavailable for anywhere from three to six months, there is going to be alot of dead people in this country. With this is going to come widespread diseases, killing even more. How many people do you feel will be dead as a result of y2k here in America? I could easily see it claiming 1/3rd of our population. Russia lost like that many of her people in WWII so it's possible

-- Will 1/3rd die? (starving@famine.com), February 15, 1999

Answers

As of right now only about 10% of the people are actually preparing. I can see that percentage increase to about 50% by this fall. I believe the other 50% will for sure die from hunger, thirst or cold. Cemetaries will not be able to keep up and most people will be buried in everybody's backyard, or open fields or forrests. That's cheaper anyway. When this is all over, our freeways will be drivable again. Many houses will sit empty and the price of homes and appartments will be at rockbottom prices because of the "glut" of empty homes and apartments!

-- Freddie the Freeloader (freddie@aol.com), February 15, 1999.

Good stuff Freddie, always looking on the bright side of a disaster. Seriously though, I have about 3-5 years supply of grain and rice, but gonna be getting more shortly, if the banks hold out.

Shadow

-- shadow (foo@foo.com), February 15, 1999.

Check out the TV reports from Sudan. A coffee can full of gruel for a family of 4 for a week! People die by the hundreds there daily. Civil war prevents crops from growing, there is no livestock (hell even the bugs are hiding) and to think it may happen here.

-- Bill (y2khippo@yahoo.com), February 15, 1999.

At least we have millions of acres of fruit and nut trees in the United States. We'll all have bad cases of diahrrea for sure!

-- fruitcake (fruitcake@yum.com), February 16, 1999.

Seems to me like we have some trolling going on here.

While some may expect famine, a 10 on a scale that gets used here and there, and while there are some 10s here, I have not seen any basis for the assertion that "most of us think" we are probably facing "food being unavailable for anywhere from three to six months".

Shortages, yes. Rationing if it gets really bad, yes. And if it comes to that, most of us would prefer not to be dependent on the ration amounts and standing on line for food.

But several months of "food being unavailable" would wipe out most of the population, some from starvation, some from the fighting over what food was around, and some from other side effects of such a situation.

If that's what you are expecting, you have my condolences.

But if you are just laying out sucker bait, trolling for quotes for some "Y2K Wacko" story, get a life.

Jerry

-- Jerry B (skeptic76@erols.com), February 16, 1999.

1/3 by the sword. 1/3 by pestilence and famine.

The remaining 1/3.......

The ones who are left....

Can you say: "Gulag"?

Jus' a little biblical proportion fer Y'all.

-- INVAR (gundark@aol.com), February 16, 1999.

Jerry B, you might benefit from a few days research into the Food Chain

-- Mitchell Barnes (spanda@inreach.com), February 16, 1999.

Where is a good summary of the scale of one through ten, in terms of impact?

-- Spoticat (incognito@y2k.com), February 16, 1999.

How's this? 0 - No real impact

1 - Local impact for some enterprises

2 - Significant impact for many enterprises

3 - Significant market adjustment (20%+ drop); some bankruptcies

4 - Economic slowdown; rise in unemployment; isolated social incidents

5 - Mild recession; isolated supply/infrastructure problems; runs on banks

6 - Strong recession; local social disruptions; many bankruptcies

7 - Political crises; regional supply/infrastructure problems and social disruptions

8 - Depression; infrastructure crippled; markets collapse; local martial law

9 - Supply/infrastructure collapse; widespread social disruptions and martial law

10 - Collapse of U.S. government; possible famine

Famine doesn't come into the picture until 10. People can survive a very long time without any food. Just take a look at models. They starve themselves for years and are even praised for it. To think that 80 million will die next year is just pure hysteria.

-- Lucy (interested@myhome.com), February 16, 1999.

While there are still worms, and ants, and grubs, and birds, and trees, and plants, and animals, there should be NO REASON for anyone to die of hunger. If they do, then it's a good case of pure laziness. There is plenty of information on how to fish, set up snares, which plants you can eat, which bugs you can eat, etc.. Everyone get educated. And you won't starve.

-- Laura (BANKL@PAC.DFO-MPO.GC.CA), February 16, 1999.

You're right Laura! Just look at Timon and Pumba! (Not to mention Simba!) Ha-koon-a-ma-ta-das away! :)

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), February 16, 1999.