....because I can't understand how anything wide scale could only last 2-3 days or months...

Owl

-- owl (b@a.com), October 01, 1999

Answers

The three days is government spin.

It originated in the Red Cross preparation guidance, which had a longer period (7 or 14, I don't remember which) but the White House went ballistic so it went down to 3. 3 is the number of days till the Red Cross and FEMA and National Guard can get to a disaster area and set up operations.

Look at how well they are doing in North Carolina over two weeks after Floyd with only one disaster in the country, and dedcide how long to prepare for.

To be fair, we should look at the problem government sees with preparing for longer. We are fed, supplied, banked, and fueled by multistage continuous supply systems, which have almost all gone to Just-In-Time operations over the last ten years.

That means that there is basically no stockage in the system and product is grown, pumped, printed and manufactured just as it is about to be consumed. This approach eliminates inventory/holding costs and greatly reduces total cost of operations.

It has also, incidentally put the screws to originators of the basic commodities food, oil, etc. As a result they have eliminated excess production. So, in a continuous multistage supply system, if you suddenly increase demand, what you get is STOCK OUT conditions. If millions of people massively increase demand now (Oct 99), in a Just- In-Time environment, we are going to see STOCK OUT CONDITIONS THAT LAST FOR MONTHS!

-- ng (cantprovideemail@none.com), October 01, 1999.

ng

Nice attempt. However, the problem is quite simple.

We will have moderate, localized disruptions over the weekend of Jan 1 and 2.

On Monday all the workers will come in and fix the problems.

By Tuesday everything will be just fine.

(sarcasm off)

-- after all, its..... (onlylogical@hotmail.com), October 01, 1999.

In response to frustrations voiced by Floyd victims, WRAL-TV reported at

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=001VE0

that North Carolina is only one of 18 states currently being aided by FEMA. I heard a report last night that those victims being housed in trailers are expected to live there for up to 18 months; hence, it would appear that some (most?) of the 18 states will still be receiving aid as the rollover occurs. Government resources are stretched very thinly at this point--all the more reason to keep preppin'.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), October 01, 1999.

If all the code had been remediated 100%, all end-to-end testing completed and verified 100% with no problems discernable after multiple test-fix-test cycles, all embedded systems tested and replaced, and all computer systems replaced by Macs and tested tested tested until the 'bug' was extinct, the 'bomb' taken apart and destroyed, and its blueprint outlawed, then and only then could Y2K have possibly been a 'short term' catastrophy. (Real-time real-life production always spits up unexpected problems).

As if.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), October 01, 1999.