I just downloaded all of the Y2K Toolkit stuff for the nationwide Y2K Community Conversations from this site: http://www.y2k.gov/community/

HOW DISCOURAGING - GIANT STEP BACKWARDS. Particularly Y2K FAQ's. When you read this, it looks like everything is AOK. Appears objective is to only reassure public. No sense of (even minor) urgency. I thought purpose was to help "light fires" under those small businesses and local governments who haven't been doing anything.

I was looking forward to these Y2K Community Conversations. But, now I feel they will be counterproductive and encourage more complacency.

SIGH :-((

-- Cheryl (Transplant@Oregon.com), May 26, 1999

Answers

I know we all hoped for better. Someone posted yesterday a critique of a local Y2K community meeting; he was disappointed in the same old happy face message (assurance -- 3 days) ...

The testimony before the senate by so many dedicated and concerned citizens (actively participating in government) has been co-opted to create this community conversation debacle.

I'm feeling real sorrow right now...there was just the slimmest of chances that this was more than a 'see we let you give us your input, now don't you feel like you helped to create this program?' But there you have it...on the plate...not just burnt toast; charred dead meat. I better stop now, I'm getting really angry.

-- Shelia (Shelia@active-stream.com), May 26, 1999.

The 3-day scenario is the time required to organize shelters for "displaced" persons without food, water, or power. I plan NOT to attend...

-- Dennis (djolson@pressenter.com), May 26, 1999.

Cheryl, there is a 1% chance that Oregon will break the mold and come out with a real Y2K community preparedness plan. We learned long ago that the Fed community effort would not even amount to a hill of beans. Hence our choice of this Forum for urging preparation.

Do not get discouraged -- the individual has much power within his/her own community. Leadership from the top was decapitated months ago, and the headless horsemen will ride to ruin post Halloween. We the people must save ourselves and our local hamlets.

xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), May 26, 1999.

First you want the govt. to recommend that people prepare. Then when they do recommend it you say it isn't good enough. If they said a week, you'd say a month. If they said a month, you'd say a year. Get real!

-- get real (get@real.now), May 26, 1999.

I cannot think of a time in my life when I wasn't prepared for 72 hrs. I mean there is always enough pbj around here for 3 days and if not I could easily do without for 72 hrs. I wish they would get a little more serious and at least tell people 2 weeks or something.

-- Johnny (JLJTM@BELLSOUTH.NET), May 26, 1999.

Get real: If they recommended a month, it would send the appropriate message that the problem is serious and should be prepared for accordingly. That would suit me just fine, and would prompt some people to actually do something.

-- regular (zzz@z.z), May 26, 1999.

Ashton & Leska:

Last week there was a Y2K community awareness meeting in Grants Pass. There were more speakers than audience members. Only 6 people showed up:-(

-- Cheryl (Transplant@Oregon.com), May 26, 1999.

Bummer, Cheryl. Cold in winter there, really cold. There is an alternative community there, maybe they can be rallied. Contact the Rogue River Y2K Group for help -- they testified with Ed yesterday. There are others on this Forum in your area ...

xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), May 26, 1999.

Well ... since John Koskinen is heading this "Y2K Community Conversation" effort - I'm gonna help him out:-))

Before I distribute FAQ's to anyone, I'm going to add a few things. Here's the intro:

A MESSAGE FROM JOHN KOSKINEN Chair - President's Council on Y2K Conversion Transcript, APEC Summit, May 4, 1999 United States Information Agency http://pdq2.usia.gov/scripts/cqcgi.exe/@pdqtest1.env?CQ_SESSION_KEY=YL WXNVIGNNZM&CQ_QUERY_HANDLE=123990&CQ_CUR_DOCUMENT=1&CQ_PDQ_DOCUMENT_VI EW=1&CQSUBMIT=View&CQRETURN=&CQPAGE=1

"we've told our local governments and our state governments that they need to be prepared to handle emergencies on their own, since the federal government can't be everywhere dealing with every problem in light of the large number of problems that we are likely to have" ...

"we should also obviously expect that we will have a large number, possibly, of what would be manageable failures taken one at a time, which will overwhelm the normal emergency response processes when they happen all at once." ...

"we've asked FEMA to... make clear to the state and local emergency managers ... that those local governments should not assume that the federal government and FEMA will be able to come to their assistance no matter what their problem is, because we may have so many problems in localities across the country that we can't be everywhere at once. " =====================================================

I'll be glad to share some of my other additions.

-- Cheryl (Transplant@Oregon.com), May 26, 1999.

"Last week there was a Y2K community awareness meeting in Grants Pass. There were more speakers than audience members. Only 6 people showed up:-(" - Cheryl

Cheryl,

I tried to contact you, but your posted email address doens't work. I would like to ask you a question or two, and perhaps share some info you may not have. My email address is valid. Would appreciate some of your time.

Thanks in advance.

LP

-- LP (soldog@hotmail.com), May 26, 1999.

Rogue Valley Y2K Task Force:

http://www.rv-y2k.org/

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), May 26, 1999.

HERE'S ANOTHER ADDITION:

As always, people should have batteries for flashlights and radios, have a three-day supply of water ...

Federal Government Figures Project Y2K Water Crisis More than thirty million people in the United States are likely to be without water after January 2000. Nearly two thirds of those affected will be in the big cities ... This bleak assessment was delivered during an American-Canadian meeting held on February 22, 1999 to discuss "Cross-Border Y2K Issues." At the meeting it was revealed that ten percent of large urban water suppliers in the United States are not expected to be Y2K compliant when the Year 2000 date transition occurs.

The minutes of the joint meeting indicate that John Koskinen, Chair of the President's Council on Y2K Conversion, "admitted that water is problematic." The water situation for small and medium communities is even more grim. Nearly one fourth (23%) of the 51,000 such systems are not expected to achieve Y2K compliance in time according to information released at the joint American-Canadian conference.

These figures show that over nineteen million metropolitan users and eleven million rural users would be in jeopardy of not having sufficient water when the new year begins. Waste treatment, which depends on the availability of water, would also be at risk.

These are not the only concerns about the nation's water supply. The availability of electricity and telecommunications are both critical to the water industry. According to the Senate Y2K Committee, at field hearings conducted last December 

Local government ownership and operation of most water supply and waste treatment facilities is also a serious factor. Recent studies and congressional hearings indicate that many city and county governments are significantly behind in Year 2000 preparation work. http://www.y2ktimebomb.com/Tip/Lord/lord9912.htm

-- Cheryl (Transplant@Oregon.com), May 26, 1999.

Cheryl, yours is much better reading.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), May 26, 1999.

Here's a link to some interesting comments by the suburban Washington DC water company:

crunch this

-- Doug (douglasjohnson@prodigy.net), May 26, 1999.

It's unfortunate that this FEMA brochure doesn't receive more attention:

http://www.fema.gov/library/emfdwtr.htm

[snip]

Emergency Food and Water Supplies

If an earthquake, hurricane, winter storm or other disaster ever strikes your community, you might not have access to food, water and electricity for days, or even weeks. By taking a little time now to store emergency food and water supplies, you can provide for your entire family.

This brochure was developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Community and Family Preparedness Programs which provides information to help families prepare for all types of disasters.

[snip]

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), May 26, 1999.

AND - I'M DEFINITELY ATTACHING A HARD COPY OF THIS PAMPHLET!!

California makes Y2K Preparedness booklet available to public: Y2K - What2Do - Individual & Family Preparedness developed by California Governor's office of Emergency Services 4-page booklet with some pretty specific preparation advice on generators, food, medicine, etc. Includes how to purify water and how much water is required for each individual - adults & kids. http://www.oes.ca.gov/OESHomeP.nsf/Images/Y2KNewsletter/$file/Y2Kn'ltr .pdf

-- Cheryl (Transplant@Oregon.com), May 26, 1999.

A snip from the link Doug provided:

[snip]

MR. STAED: Just a couple supplementary points as far as our contingency planning. One thing, we're building contingencies on having power, uninterrupted supply of power, but we also are taking into consideration our suppliers.

We will ensure that we have a 30 day supply of treatment chemicals, both for water and for wastewater, on hand to deal width any supply-related-type concerns that may come about.

[snip]

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), May 26, 1999.

AND HERE'S SOMETHING ELSE THAT WAS INTERESTING:

Johnson cautioned that their water and sewage treatment system is heavily dependent on four different electric companies, and if there should be an extended breakdown in electric service "the contingency for dealing with that is not going to meet the needs of our customers."

Johnson said that in such a case, WSSC will be able to supply a limited amount of water to its most critical customers, such as hospitals and businesses, and that most customers would have to travel to a water station where they could obtain treated water.

-- Cheryl (Transplant@Oregon.com), May 26, 1999.

The Washington Surbuban Sanitation Commission (the water company I mentioned above), is truly concerned about the power supply. Read this snippet and then wonder again why the government is recommending a three-day supply of water.

[snip]

Should we have a real breakdown in electric service, we are so heavily dependent and we are so large a user of electrical power that we cannot depend on the generation of our own power, it would just be too much for us to do.

We have said we're not in the power business, and they're not in the water business. So should there be a real breakdown, an extended period with no electricity, the contingency for dealing with that is not going to meet the needs of our customers, and we know that already.

We will be able to supply a limited amount of water to our most critical customers -- that being the hospitals, the dialysis agencies or businesses, that kind of thing, those things that really have to have water. We plan to have strategic points where customers can come to a finished water station, we'll call it, where we will either have a tanker or some way of holding large amounts of finished water -- water that has been totally filtered and treated. That kind of thing.

Other than that, we are just going to have to ask our customers to remember that we are in the situation that they are in. Because if we are out of power as being a critical user of power, they most certainly are going to be out of power. So we're all going to be in this together. We cannot build a contingency around not having power fully.

[snip]

-- Doug (douglasjohnson@prodigy.net), May 26, 1999.

From Douglass Carmichaels latest Y2KWEEKX
Week 32 issue 36 May 26, 1999

http://tmn.com/y2k

[BTW, lots of good stuff, todays e-issue should be posted soon].

[snip]

Monday's big news was the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion official press conference announcement of the "Community Conversations" campaign. The only media coverage I know of was CSPAN outside the web based news.

http://www.y2k.gov/community/< /a>

I attended this event and although I applaud the effort I am unimpressed. Council Chair John Koskinen invited representatives from the American Bankers Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the North American Electric Reliability Council, the American Hospital Association, the Clearwater, Florida based Citizens for a Stable Community and Frost Bank in San Antonio, Texas to endorse this endeavor. The strongest message was: "We need to build confidence in the infrastructure"

My questions is: how does confidence lead to preparedness? I think it encourages us to not prepare. If there is no problem, why worry? John Koskinen and Judith (Joose) Hadley from Citizens for a Stable Community were the only voices calling for preparedness. But they didn't do it strongly or with enough sense of urgency. In fact I thought it was interesting that the Council chose Joose as the only community organizer on the panel. Although she is clearly well connected in her local community and doing great efforts to raise awareness and work with the local infrastructure, JK had never met her and she has had little contact with the rest of the Y2k community network. Why would he not want one of the well networked vocal community awareness spokespeople up on the podium? Why pull a stranger from a bubble? What was he afraid of? Would one of us have said the wrong thing? I think so.

All of the statements were prepared in advance btw. Were they approved ahead of time? They were certainly seen ahead of time. I learned yesterday that the Council has hired a number of hot shot PR consultants to run the media campaign around the conversations. A team of them flew to Hartford, CT where the first official "Conversion" will take place on June 7th. What are they being told to say, what will they be doing to make sure these events get strong participation, will they work with us? I intend to find out and let you know.

[snip--to end]

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), May 26, 1999.

*Sigh*

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), May 26, 1999.

water water food

water water food

water water food

Start here, and then keep going. Do I make myself clear?

-- nothere nothere (nothere@nothere.com), May 26, 1999.