When the people of Princeville, North Carolina heard the flood warnings during hurricane Floyd,they listened. After all, Princeville often flooded during heavy rains, making it inconvenient and messy to travel and get about. As one resident told the News & Observer, every time it rains we get a flash flood warning.

Flood warnings also came during Floyd. The problem? There was no difference between the warnings about a flood that comes over the the top of your galoshes and one that turns your house over, leaves your car in a tree, drowns your cattle, uproots your grandfather's grave and washes pesticides, heavy metals and petroleum over an area twice the size of Vermont.

The analysis? Government is nothing more than a blinking idiot light on the dashboard of society. Sure, the Doppler radar operators, the meteorologists and the hydrologists had the information to predict that the 100 year flood plain boundary would not only reached, but would be under 10 or 15 feet of water.

But government warnings, which are issued with the frequency approximating the sound of popcorn in a hot skillet, have no degrees. Simply on/off. Idiot lights.

No one alive in North Carolina remembers anything like this flood. Therefore, government was structurally unable to anticipate such an event. Government is always fighting past wars. The next war is always a complete shock.

It is my belief that government is structurally incapable of issuing Y2K warnings beyond the idiot light. I personally have no idea if Y2k effects will be felt. But the idiot lights have blinked on, just like they did for the residents of Princeville. Now, making excuses for doing nothing to prevent the death and pure annhilation in Princeville, the NC Division of Emergency Management is saying "They were warned." Were they? Have we been?

-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), September 28, 1999

Answers

"The analysis? Government is nothing more than a blinking idiot light on the dashboard of society."

Pudd, that is one of best lines I've ever read here.

A very astute oservation. They have done the minimum amount neccessary to be able to say that they did something later.

-- Lewis (aslanshow@yahoo.com), September 28, 1999.

Superb Puddintame! "Government is nothing more than a blinking idiot light on the dashboard of society." Any other 'belief'/assumption is nothing more than one of the myriad myths Mother Culture drones at folks 24/7, from cradle to grave.

Walk away,...

--She in the sheet, upon the hilltop,

-- Donna (moment@pacbell.net), September 28, 1999.

"Government is nothing more than a blinking idiot light on the dashboard of society."

Damn, that is a good line...It says it all. I'm penciling that one in my book of quotes.

-- Mabel Dodge (cynical@me.net), September 28, 1999.

LOL & ROTF!

Thats a keeper! The idiots certainly ARE winking AND blinking. Think theyre battery-operated or wind-up?

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), September 28, 1999.

Puddintame -- even if industry metrics weren't smoke and even if the gov/biz establishment wasn't blowing smoke, the uniqueness of Y2K as a commingled technical, cultural and economic event ("not analyzable") would be more than enough to make sane people GIs.

Fighting past wars is the problem and, btw, explains why even those doomers who hearken back to the 30s are going to turn out to be all wet if TSHTF.

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), September 28, 1999.

Big Dog...I agree 100%. Chubby Hubby and I know how to live off the grid and "beyond the sidewalks". And while we are loaded with guns and ammo and know how to shoot, can we?? Its the morals, or lack of, that make this the most frightening aspect of y2k. Even tho people were starving during the depression, they didn't march in and knock you over the head and take what you have. And if they can't have it for themselves, they will destroy it so no one else can. We are so dependent upon our neighbors and we don't even know most of them. No, as much as I wish it to be true, its not going to be the Waltons revisted.

Taz

-- Taz (Taz@aol.com), September 28, 1999.

Puddintame, let me add my hearty agreement to your as I listen to my scanner and take in the flash flood information here in Durham (minor, I hasten to add), I can hear some officers saying, "Yeah, the sign people came out and put high water signs out here but they've been carried away by the water." During Fran, high water signs were also put out--the water wasn't as high so they weren't washed away--but the 70 m.p.h. gusts blew them away.

I think the major reason more complete warnings weren't given is that nobody had ever seen a flood like that around here, ergo it couldn't happen. And I think that's what's happening with Y2k. So it's not just the Tar, Neuse and other rivers, it's denial too.

Stats: Dennis, Floyd and this current system have given us here in Durham three feet of rain--six months of rain in a few weeks, the bulk of it in the last 12 days. And all of it running downhill towards eastern NC to add to the misery they already endure. It's supposed to end sometime during the day on Thursday. It'll be stopped by--a cold front with some cool temps. Y'all quit typing and cross your fingers, y'heah?

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), September 29, 1999.

"Government is nothing more than a blinking idiot light on the dashboard of society"....Lord, I love this guy!!!!

-- Jay Urban (jurban@berenyi.com), September 29, 1999.