I guess local governments in and around Washington D.C. have finally seen the light. Here's the URL. Now,--what about the REST of us? I'm still waiting for our nearby big metropolitan area mayor to say something. That's where my water comes from.

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), March 28, 1999

Answers

URL, where?

-- KoFE (your@town.USA), March 28, 1999.

Sorry about that. Washington Post, yesterday's edition:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-03/27/050l-032799-idx .html

:)

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), March 28, 1999.

Holding my nose, I read this article in yesterday's Washington Post. It struck me as another "bump-in-the-road" article aimed at getting those who already "get-it" to limit their preparations to a few days worth.

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@Anonymous.com), March 28, 1999.

FM -

The link doesn't work...what did the article say?

R.

-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), March 28, 1999.

Link please.

-- Linda A. (adahi@muhlon.com), March 28, 1999.

Prepare for Y2K, but Don't Panic, Officials Say

By Stephen C. Fehr Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, March 27, 1999; Page B01

Prepare for New Year's Day 2000 as if a bad winter snowstorm were going to hit Washington, federal and local officials advised D.C. area residents yesterday.

Stock up on groceries, fill the gasoline tank and take out some extra cash from the bank, the officials said at a day-long conference on the year 2000 computer problem, or Y2K.

"And don't wait until the last minute," said Janet Abrams, executive director of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion. "Prepare."

The suggested precautions were an attempt to ease unbridled public fears about the so-called Y2K problem, in which some computer programs -- unless they are fixed -- may incorrectly read the year 2000 as 1900 come the start of next year.

"Consumers feel out of control on this issue," John L. Hall, public relations manager for the American Banking Association, told about 125 officials at the conference, which was sponsored by the president's council and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and was held in the Ronald Reagan Building.

Hall raised the specter that thieves will break into homes if they know people are squirreling away excessive cash. "What we don't want to see is people pulling out large sums of cash" that would not be federally insured, as the money would be if left in a bank, he said.

Confusion about how to respond to the possibility of Y2K troubles is rampant because, despite assurances, no one knows how many glitches may occur when the clock strikes midnight. "Everyone would like to have a clear picture of what's going to happen," said John Koskinen, chairman of the president's council. "Although we can tell you more now than a year ago, there's no one who can tell you the answer to the question."

However, Koskinen told the conference, "We think we can be increasingly confident we're not going to have a national catastrophe."

But a telecommunications industry executive told the conference that he has found at least two instances of an unnamed major Northeast utility company and an Internet service provider claiming to have repaired all of their computers when tests showed they hadn't. If that pattern holds, there could be significant problems, the executive said.

Two local members of Congress who addressed the conference also could not offer complete confidence the problem is under control. Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) quipped, "I'm not going to take the first plane out on New Year's Day."

Rep. Constance A. Morella (R-Md.) could not answer her own question about whether area residents will be celebrating the millennium or fearing the worst. "We simply cannot guarantee the American people there won't be any year 2000 disruptions," she said.

Several representatives of local utility companies, transportation providers and health care concerns said they are confident they are on top of the problem and will have computers adjusted in time. The Council of Governments is planning a regionwide Y2K drill in September to test its readiness.

"I'm not here to tell you hospitals are prepared in each and every respect," said Robert Malson, president of the D.C. Hospital Association, noting a typical hospital has 13,000 pieces of equipment that could go wrong, everything from coffee machines to magnetic resonance imaging machines. "But they are taking the matter seriously."

Federal officials said they and the states are ahead of most local governments in Y2K planning and now are turning attention to helping local governments catch up. The emphasis is on contingency planning -- assuming the worst and preparing for it.

Yet even planning can't completely quell jitters.

"We're used to dealing with one incident at a time," said Rita Calvan, regional director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "What we could have here is a series of several small incidents. If we're all busy, I'm not sure we'll have the resources to respond."

-- Norm (nwo@hotmail.com), March 28, 1999.

Stock up on groceries, fill the gasoline tank and take out some extra cash from the bank, the officials said at a day-long conference on the year 2000 computer problem, or Y2K.

"And don't wait until the last minute," said Janet Abrams, executive director of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion. "Prepare."

The suggested precautions were an attempt to ease unbridled public fears about the so-called Y2K problem, in which some computer programs -- unless they are fixed -- may incorrectly read the year 2000 as 1900 come the start of next year.

Isn't that what we've been saying on this forum for the past year?

Interesting -- the utilities all say they will be ready, the telephone company has found incidences of utility lying.

For the doubters, that's one reason why company statements aren't accepted without question. It's the major reason we all have to decide for ourselves how bad we expect things to be.

Remove the antispam Xs to reply......starting to get too much spam.

-- De (delewisX@Xinetone.net), March 28, 1999.

http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-03/27/050l-032799- idx.html

URL

-- helium (heliumavid@yahoo.com), March 28, 1999.

Could someone please post urls by the wash post that attack gun ownership,of which there are many; that is unless Uncle Sam is doing the shooting (ahem). That is when they seem to dry up.I would appreciate it. (I can't do it)

-- KoFE (your@town.USA), March 28, 1999.

Let's see if this works: Prepare, But Don't Panic

At least they're saying to prepare...

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.com), March 29, 1999.

Imagine you're in Time Square at midnight when the lights go out, the trains stop running, the ATMs don't work, your mobile cuts out and the phones don't work. There's a million people standing around you all noticing the same. Chilling.

What would you do when you're world changes in a second? Would you panic? Would you loot? If a not-guilty verdict in the Rodney King case causes a city to go on the rampage - what will the middle classes do when they too are threatened. It's worth thinking about. Visualise a scenario and describe it.

Ben Herron (Y2K obsessed)

-- Will you panic? (ben@jungle.com.au), March 29, 1999.