Few Americans Gird For Y2K

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Few Americans Gird For Y2K, Poll Shows

Updated 4:25 PM ET July 18, 1999 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly a fifth of U.S. households may stock up on food or water because of concerns about the year 2000 computer glitch, but the majority are planning no preparations, a poll released Sunday showed. The poll, conducted for the CBS News program "Sunday Morning," found that 56 percent of respondents said no one in their home was "thinking about doing anything" to prepare for possible disruptions caused by the year 2000 computer bug.

Eighteen percent of those surveyed said they were thinking about stocking up on water and/or food. Other precautions include withdrawing cash from the bank, upgrading computers and copying financial and electronic records.

Respondents overwhelmingly said they expected the so-called Y2K computer glitch to cause problems, though only 18 percent expected major problems.

At issue is whether some computers and microchips will crash or misread the year 2000 as 1900 because of an old programming shortcut that stored dates in two-digit fields.

A total of 722 adults chosen by nationwide random sample were surveyed by telephone on July 13 and 14. The sampling error is plus or minus four percentage points, CBS said.

-- Roger (roger@netdex.com), July 18, 1999


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