the montgomery county government sent out an 8-page circular, as an insert in assorted advertising material, called "Home Guide to Emergency Preparedness: Preparing a Plan for Emergency Events and Y2K".

the front page has a reminder from the county executive, Douglas Duncan, about this past winter's ice storm and resulting power outages. next four pages are about general emergency preparations. next 2 pages are Y2K-specific. the last page has phone numbers and web-sites of various companies/organizations.

inside, along one margin, it says this is a Year 2000 Readiness Disclosure. it also says, on the margin of page 4, other languages that the publication is available in and where to get them. of course, you have to be able to read english and read all the way to page 4 to know this.

along the same lines, my last bill from PEPCO included an insert stating that they are available to help homeowners properly hook-up generators.

-- sarah (qubr@aol.com), September 15, 1999

Answers

Finally???

Montgomery County published that guide months ago. It was inserted into the local Gazette newspapers in April.

-- Buddy (buddydc@go.com), September 15, 1999.

So, dear Buddy of the DC,

How many counties are there in the Virginia and Maryland area?

We've heard about Montgomery Cty many times, they are at least doing some limited testing and a considerable amount of preparations. All of their testing has been highly publicized too, but NO OTHER VA or MD counties have ever been spotlighted in the news.

So, dear buddy, what is happening in the rest of the state?

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), September 15, 1999.

Robert:

Gee, not to mention the rest of the counties in the rest of the states......

I talked to an EE down your way last week, he'd just finished a 9 month contract working on a company's control systems.

Said he'd found some "showstoppers". Said it was going to be "A real mess next year".

I'm still *hoping* we can get by with an eight.

-- Jon Williamson (jwilliamson003@sprintmail.com), September 15, 1999.

In speaking with a VP from Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE), I learned they had completed their third round of extensive testing. He said that out of 1.1 million customers, they had received 2,000 inquiries. His job depends on keeping the juice flowing.

Regards,

-- Mr. Decker (kcdecker@worldnet.att.net), September 15, 1999.