1st local y2k Neighborhood preparation meeting

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Our local area (Calhoun, Kalamazoo, and Van Buren counties in Southwest Michigan)had its first Y2K awareness/neighborhood preparation meeting last night. Doug Carmichael as speaker. We had 400 people make reservations, but bad weather dropped attendance to about 325. Over 100 were turned away because of seating restrictions.

Had some "sad" laughs during the question and answer period. The local power company representative (Consumer's Power) stated flatly that "No outages would last more than an hour". Hmmm, they don't promise that good during a bad storm.

When asked about the water service in town, the panel all looked at each other for a bit, then the police officer in charge of emergency planning/prep stepped forward and said that is why they were holding these meetings (?!!?) So, we are charged with supplying our own water, I guess.

Our local "Baby Bell", has done a herculean task. They finished remediation and testing of 31 million lines of code in two years..... All done, all better, no problems, no need to worry.

Advice from Mr. Carmichael: Sometimes you have to trust the system. Please don't take your money out of the bank, don't shift money out of the stock market, the subject is so complicated that for sure you won't get the "best" answer, so don't try, you'll regret it.

The two biggest "breakout" groups were concerned with 72 hours survival kits (truly!) and the issue of failure of the government to disburse funds in a timely manner (welfare, Social Security, etc.)

All in all, about what you would expect from a first meeting.

Oh, I led a breakout group to discuss the effects of and ways to deal with long term disruptions. I actually had one person join my daughter and I.

Next meeting is March 24th.

If anyone is in this area and would like to get involved, email me and I'll get information to you.

-- Jon Williamson (jwilliamson003@sprintmail.com), February 25, 1999

Answers

post the notice of meetings here, and there will be more likelihood of GIs being there for moral support. heck, give me a little notice and i'll drive an hour to get there. i've got relatives in kalamazoo anyway.

-- jocelyne slough (jonslough@tln.net), February 25, 1999.

We had a local y2k meeting this week. It was awsome. Lots of GI's and good questions. Good info expoused also! 2 points for the midwest!

-- Moore Dinty moore (not@thistime.com), February 25, 1999.

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