Just wondering if anyone knows how central Virginia will be effected with Y2K. I have stored food and water for 1 month, is that going to be good enough? Just wondering.

-- PETER MOORE (LOCKKEYER@AOL.COM), November 22, 1999

Answers

Depends on VTech beating FS in the Sugar Bowl (providing they get past BC).

-- Truth (at@the.ready), November 22, 1999.

There will be a Y2K all day meeting in Charles City County on Dec 4. To find out more, go to

http://users.inna.net/~ymmarket/y2k.htm

Everyone I have talked to with Virginia Power think they will be able to disconect from the grid before the grid pulls them down. Their worry is telephone.

-- chicken farmer (chicken-farmer@ y2k.farm), November 22, 1999.

---the problem with putting a finite date or number or limit on what might or might not happen is very simple.
No one knows.
That three day deal, or one week, or one month, or three to six months is all part of WAG, or Wild A$$ Guessing. No one knows. Now, the truly only way to be assured that your personal "disruptions" are minimalized is to have your own supply of RENEWABLE water, food, energy, and to have adequate warm shelter and to provide for your own security. Renewable water might be a well-that you can get water out of manually, or a stream, or a pond. You will need an adequate, high quality filter to be on the safe side with the latter two, and even for well water in some cases. Now stored food should be enough at a minimum to carry you through next years gardening season. That's a long time. That's a lot of food. A months worth is very good. You now have a lot more than 95% of the rest of the US. Add to it, even just some inexpensive, basic subsistence foods, like the beans, rice, corn, powdered milk, honey, salt, maybe sugar, some multivitamins, some canned meats, some fruit canned or dried, a LOT of spices and condiments, etc. You can also lay in fresh bulk potatoes, apples, winter squashes(pumpkins real cheap now), carrots, onions and other root crops. Cheap, store well, easily available now. This doesn't have to be expensive, you can do well on a budget, but your diet will be different most likely than now. The way I look at it, I sure do want SOME food, I'll take plain ole beans and rice over ZERO food anyday! Lay in garden seeds. Gardening is enjoyable for most, and pays for itself many times over in cost effectiveness and quality of the foods produced. Put it this way, it usually even out- performs the best of the stockmarket, annual per centage wise!

This is complex OR simple. The actual nuts and bolts of preparations are discussed on other boards, some of them maintained by folks who post here, and one on this site. Specific problems or concerns can be worked out there. But to answer your question exactly, I would feel better with more than one month. You may not need to have that, we may in fact have food deliveries, but, perhaps the oil industry slows down or is disrupted, severely raising prices for all of next year. The more you have now, the better off you will be, and you will eat it anyway, so, heck ya, get more! It's just insurance!

Not sure of central virginia per se, just the US generaly. If you are in a rural area, your chances of making it with less problems are much better there in the country rather than in a big city, if we have any sort of bad crash that lasts very long, and by long I mean some weeks or more. Just a rule of thumb.

I hope this little bit helps zog

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), November 22, 1999.

Truth,

Are you a Hokie? or a VaTech fan?

I did my B.S. Engineering there - Class of 1975.

-- Bill P (porterwn@one.net), November 22, 1999.

Bill, if it can't be UofM (Go Blue)then VaTech all the way.

-- Truth (at@the.ready), November 22, 1999.

VaPower relies on nuclear for 30% of our power, and lucky me is in the "10mile ring" of fallout: Surry 1&2 are right across the river from me. VaPower did not respond to my e-mail requesting info. Specifically, I wanted to know what powers the sirens in my neighborhood? I e-mailed my city rep, who responded with "we refuse to speak on behalf of Va Power", so what am I payin' taxes for, to support his sorry butt? They (VaPower) wouldn't release specifics on their y2k project for these plants, but instead lump all stats together rather than site by site. They missed their June deadline for completing remediation, so lumped remediation into testing at the Dec deadline. You tell me how they are doing? Ugh!

-- Hokie in NewportNews (newportnews@virginia.com), November 22, 1999.

I wasn't aware that Virginia Power missed their June deadline and has set a December (31st?) deadline. Can you add to this? How about some more details?

-- cody (cody@y2ksurvive.com), November 22, 1999.

the same as happened when the Yankees came thru in 65!

-- jethro Davis CSA (toughtimes@marchtothesea.com), November 23, 1999.

Here is a paste and url to their status site. I don't know if a search on their press releases will confirm the old deadline as I read it prior to July on the strategy page. I can did through those releases tonight after work perhaps. Unfortunately I don't have the software to have downloaded their old site. Of course many companies have changed their deadlines, so really it is not surprising, and the fact that remediation is currently deadlined for Dec '99 is ample evidence for concern.

http://www.vapower.com/news/y2k/status.html Major Initiatives and Completion Dates For Critical Components - September 1999

Preliminary assessment of corporate business systems July 1996 (Completed) Preliminary assessment of all technology August 1997 (Completed) Detailed inventory June 1998 (Completed) Assessment December 1998 (Completed) Remediation and testing - 99% Complete June 30, 1999 (Completed) Remediation and testing - 100% Complete December 1999

-- Hokie in Newport News (NewportNews@virginia.com), November 23, 1999.

The paste did not carry the table format. The info as you can see lists "testing and remediation" twice, at 99% complete for their June deadline, and anticipating it being 100% complete by Dec. Originally the June 30 deadline was anticipating 100% completion on remediation, with the final row of the table listing testing only. Now they have combined remediation and testing into the final phase of completion, with the Dec deadline. Having visited their site prior to June I can understand the current redundancy of their listing "remediation and testing" twice, with stats for June and Dec, given the prior structure of this table. They just edited text, and maintained format, creating a table which is now redundant in listing "remediation and testing" twice.

-- Hokie (NewportNews@virginia.com), November 23, 1999.

According to a report from NERC (the org. overseeing electrical utilities across the nation for the gov't.) dated 11-02-1999, Virginia Power was "Y2K Ready with Limited Exceptions". I'm not real comforted by that as my power company here in Delaware is listed as being the same "RE" on Nerc's table.

beej

-- beej (beej@ppbbs.com), November 23, 1999.

From VA Power site:

Remediation of a system at one small coal-fired unit will be performed during a regularly scheduled maintenance outage. Since routine maintenance periods cannot be scheduled during the peak summer season, work on the remaining critical system at this fossil generation unit will be completed during a previously scheduled fall maintenance period. The target ready date for this system is December 15, 1999. This unit is not needed to meet projected demand during the rollover.

-- Hoffmeister (hoff_meister@my-deja.com), November 23, 1999.