At a meeting of my local Y2K prep group (we started out as a "Community Awareness" committee, but the community wasn't interested), I ran across a couple of interesting bits of information.

Of course, this is "second hand, unverified", so take it as you will.

A. The pastor of the church we were meeting at that night has been involved enough with Y2K to be giving presentations at churches across Michigan. After a meeting in a town with a Coast Guard station, the local mayor introduced this pastor to the local Coast Guard commander (both were members of the church the presentation was held at). The commander stated that he had been told to EXPECT a 30 day blackout, and to make contingency plans for 3 times that long........

B. One of our members had just finished a Red Cross Emergency Shelter Management (?) course. The member asked the instructor how many cots the local chapter had ON HAND. She was told "250". When she pressed the instructor for details on how they would handle more people than that, in the event of trouble after January 1, the instructor said, "No problem, we will just call Lansing, Detroit, and Grand Rapids and borrow them".........

Now, FEMA is depending on the Red Cross, and at least some folks in the Red Cross are STILL this clueless???

-- Jon Williamson (pssomerville@sprintmail.com), August 29, 1999

Answers

Last June we were in Astoria, Oregon and had the opportunity to visit with a Coast Guard Commander. He, too, has been advised to be prepared for a 100% chance of long term blackout and ALL the reprecussions that it will bring. He is very concerned about the reality of the top-level leaders in all branches of the service retiring and leaving us only people who have no experience with a true crisis. He is terrified over what will undoubtedly happen with the roll-over, but is personally preparing for the worst.

-- winna (??@??.com), August 29, 1999.

Last fall, I got sick and tired of hearing about how we could all go to shelters if it got bad. I looked at my county's population, the number of available schools and did the math. I wrote an article in which I challenge the shelter concept.

Please read The Bean Theory.

http://www.y2kkitchen.com/html/y2k_bean_theory.html

-- Sally Strackbein (sally@y2kkitchen.com), August 29, 1999.

winna - I heard Joyce Riley recently say that 90% of the people who were in the military for the Gulf War are now out - for whatever reasons. So the pool of experienced people is dwindling to a puddle.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), August 29, 1999.

Link to Sally's article

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), August 29, 1999.

If they plan to pick up the cots going up US 131, It's going to be difficult traveling around Grand Rapids once they shut the downtown S- curve this fall. I forgot how many hundreds of thousands of cars they estimated go through there during rush hour, but they're planning to redirect the traffic through city streets during construction, which is scheduled to be at least for a year...hooooo boy!

If Y2k turns into an event, it's gonna be interesting to see how the Grand Rapids traffic situation turns out. I drive there at least twice a week to visit clients, and it's a city that's grown very quickly in the last ten years. Buildings and shopping centers being thrown up overnight, urban sprawl like you would not believe. My mother said that she used to watch ringneck pheasants play in the fields in Kentwood back in the 60's, now it's paved over with strip malls, stores, and over-priced cookie-cutter houses design for middle class wanna-be's.

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), August 29, 1999.

And, oh, BTW, anybody notice those small, square-sized blue signs on US 131 northbound around the Westland area? I don't know the mile marker, but it's about 5-10 minutes before you hit the GR city limits.

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), August 29, 1999.

At least, fortunately, those experienced military people are now part of civilian communities. They may find themselves pressed into very 'local' leadership by virtue of their ability to function thru crisis.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), August 29, 1999.

Thanks Jon,

My little "tidbit" occured in a board meeting on Friday. The word on the silicon valley street, is that most LARGE organizations here expect, and are contingency planning for, intermittent blackouts and brownouts of unknown, but not long, duration in January. So power issues color their perspectives. In addition, their main economic concerns appear to vector in on longer-term pacific rim supply chain delays and/or disruptions. Then there are the domestic vendor and infrastructure issues and... no one knows!

This, at least, parallels "other" local power assessments I've heard from others "in the know" here.

(Not that I think Silicon Valley types are particularly knowledgeable, or paying attention to global Y2K ramifications on the local scene!)

*Sigh*

At least our winter weather is "livable."

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), August 29, 1999.

If it gets as bad as people having to be at shelters, I can't imagine who the volunteers will be who are running the places. Any volunteers would have to have their families with them, otherwise they would be afraid to leave them at their homes (even if they are Y2K prepared). They would be afraid to leave them at home because if it is so bad that people are at shelters, then there would be looters and opportunists all over the place. Who is going to guard these homes? If it is this bad, who is going to truck in more beans to replenish? Truckers aren't going to leave their families. I can't even imagine soldiers leaving their families to fend for themselves in such uncertain conditions. Unless a community has been preparing for quite some time by now, and has acquired the necessary food, heat, etc., already, there just isn't enough time to do it now.

-- cassie (healthy@nauticom.net), August 29, 1999.

Oops!! Forgot one.

One of my employees is married to a long term Navy man.

The DOD has started a new program, one that they have never done before. Instead of giving the service folks and their families money for off base housing, etc., they have arranged to pay rent or mortgage AND utilities direct to the creditor.

This has never been done before, and it was rushed into place in the last month or so....

She is sure it is meant to reassure our active duty military that their families will be provided for during the rollover and beyond....

-- Jon Williamson (pssomerville@sprintmail.com), August 29, 1999.