WHERE and HOW can I find info on the island and area...I am worried about the obvious...PREFERE he come home to the big island...imput appreciated...Mahalo, BB

-- Bob Bowman (bbowman@gte.net), July 22, 1999

Answers

Synchronicity...

I was cleaning out some papers last night, and I ran across the Y2K article in last Jnauary's National guard Assoc. magazine.

It's pretty good piece, but I happen to notice that it had a short sidebar about the NG in Guam:

http://www.ngaus.org/ngmag/sidebar199.htm

Hope this helps

-- Lewis (aslanshow@yahoo.com), July 22, 1999.

I've been there, if long ago. Mostly flat & not that big; believe has some streams/swamps (some WWII Japanese soldier hid out there 'til late 1970's at least). Typhoons can really nail a place like Guam. Some native population, I believe. U.S. Military has large presence on island. Not the best or worst place to weather Y2K.

www.y2ksafeminnesota.com

-- MinnesotaSmith (y2ksafeminnesota@hotmail.com), July 22, 1999.

The "sidebar" article reads, in part:

* * *

Unlike the abundant natural resources in the United States, Guam relies on regular shipments for nearly all its goods. If transportation systems break down, emergencies could arise.

"Everything arrives to us by plane or by ship," 1st Lt. Irving Vida, Y2K coordinator for Guam's Air National Guard, said. "So if those don't work, we have a problem." Services such as telecommunications that cause panic among stateside residents when blips occur, could bring disaster to the isolated island. AT&T uses a satellite and fiber-optic lines through the Pacific Ocean to supply communications.

"For us, it's a lifeline," Calvo said. "Unless we have some kind of redundancy set up, we'll totally lose communications." Calvo wonders aloud whether the island's government-sponsored electric, water and sewer will be prepared to beat the millennium bug. "Personally, I think that makes a bigger mountain to climb because of the bureaucracy," he said.

...Calvo and Vida are comforted by the fact that Guam has among the highest per capita Guard organizations: 1,000 Guard members for 150,000 residents. And they are not new to emergency response.

In December 1997, Super Typhoon Paka slammed into Guam with 220-mile-per-hour winds. The island was out of electricity and water for three to eight weeks, depending on different locations, Calvo said.

-- M.C. Hicks (mhicks@greenwich.com), July 22, 1999.

Your son should have best vantage point on this one! His skills to forage if resupply is nonexistant will be key! Hopefully China stays put, and behaves, but could go island hopping! Have a readily available source of water identified, as well as several backups.

-- (snowleopard6@webtv.net), July 22, 1999.