http://www.nypostonline.com/news/20657.htm

NEW YORKERS: CAN'T BE Y2-CAREFUL By JOYCE COHEN, TOM TOPOUSIS and BILL HOFFMANN

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UNENDING WORK: People work on the Millennium celebration stage in Times Square yesterday under an apocalyptic billboard. - NYP: W.A. Funches Jr.

New Yorkers got ready for Millennium Mayhem yesterday -- stocking up like mad on emergency supplies. Flashlights, batteries, propane stoves, canned food, bottled water and other necessities were flying off the shelves.

The flashlight display had to be restocked three times at Weinstein & Holtzman, a hardware store on Park Row.

In a typical month, about 75 flashlights sell. This December, 600 sold, and "at lunch time, we had a line out the door," owner Jeffrey Hymowitz said.

At Kmart near Astor Place, the camping section was nearly empty.

"We're selling every flashlight and every two-burner stove," manager Mike Damico said. An aisle away from the camping gear, Bronia Andrusyszyn concentrated on the flashlights.

"I live on the ninth floor," she said. "I might have to go down the stairs, and the stairwell will be dark."

She was concerned because of her experience during the blackout of 1977, when she supervised an office cleaning crew.

"They had to bring the women down from the 42nd floor," she said. Benjamin Gonzales, a new Bronx dad, was concerned about food.

"I'm getting dried milk for the baby. She needs to be fed," he said.

Weekly sales of sleeping bags have doubled -- from 15 to 30 -- at Eastern Mountain Sports on Broadway and Houston Street.

"It was obvious that not everyone was looking for them as Christmas gifts," manager Jim Walker said.

He said he expected the run on supplies to intensify in the next few days.

"That's the pace of life in New York. You don't deal with it until there's immediacy."

Meanwhile, the Housing Authority has sent a letter to its 600,000 tenants, advising them to brace for a litany of possible breakdowns: from a blackout to a banking disaster.

The letter urges them to stockpile food, water, batteries and to develop an "emergency plan" to stay in contact with friends and relatives in the event of a breakdown in public services.

Meals on Wheels, which distributes free hot food to the elderly and needy, is also taking no chances -- it's distributing 45-pound care packages to 16,000 residents.

In Times Square, cops sealed manhole covers as they put the finishing touches on security for the Big Apple's huge Y2K celebration.

The sealed covers will prevent possible terrorist attacks from the city's sewer system -- and stop anyone from escaping into the vast underground system, authorities said.

Mayor Giuliani and Police Commissioner Howard Safir insisted the city is prepared for a safe New Year's Eve.

The mayor refused to criticize the city of Seattle's decision to cancel its annual outdoor bash, but said such a precautionary measure could never work in Manhattan.

"If you probably tried to cancel it, instead of two million people showing up, four million people would show up," he insisted.

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http://www.nydailynews.com/1999-12-29/News_and_Views/City_Beat/a-51832.asp

Chaos Grips Times Sq. Swarms of workers ready fest

By MARTIN MBUGUA, FRANK LOMBARDI and OWEN MORITZ Daily News Staff Writers

imes Square took on the trappings of a combat zone yesterday as construction workers preparing for the big party jockeyed with police and pedestrians on Broadway and Seventh Ave., already renamed NYC 2000 Way and Millennium Way.

Crowds already revel in sights as workers prepare for New Year's Eve at Times Square. Three days before the New Year's Eve celebration to end all celebrations, Con Edison said it had welded all manhole covers shut as a security precaution. Wary police officers were an increasing presence in the shadow of 1 Times Square, from which the ball counting down the seconds to the year 2000 will be lowered Friday night.

In late afternoon, with sidewalk space tight, nerves frayed as homeward-bound pedestrians tried to muscle their way through several hundred fans massed outside the MTV studios at Broadway and W. 44th St.

Maintenance workers on cherry pickers mounted police surveillance cameras atop lampposts, and 18 huge loudspeakers were attached by cables to the roofs of 18 buildings to hang three stories above the street.

More than 2 million revelers are expected in the streets around Times Square for the millennium celebration despite the twin fears of Y2K blackouts and terrorist acts.

"It's exciting," said Shaheed Muhammad, 31, an electrician among those working around the clock to assemble a giant stage at 46th St. and Broadway. "I wouldn't want to work anywhere else."

More than 100 electricians, stagehands, carpenters and prop experts are at work on the stage, which will be 35 feet high, 55 feet long and 17 feet wide, with a design said to be influenced by Indonesian architecture.

Televised entertainment will begin at 7 a.m. Friday.

Two tourists from Ludwigshafen, Germany, taking photos of Broadway's neon signs, seemed bewildered. Both said they planned to be here New Year's Eve.

"I didn't know blocks are so big," Daniella Mueller, 35, told her friend Andrea Albrecht, 36.

"Germany is small and quiet, and New York is loud and big," observed Albrecht.

At City Hall, Mayor Giuliani shrugged off Seattle's announcement that it was canceling its planned millennium celebration because of a fear of terrorism.

"This is New York," the mayor said. "If you probably tried to cancel it, instead of 2 million showing up, 4 million people would."

He and Police Commissioner Howard Safir once again said cops will be on full alert.

Giuliani reiterated that Seventh Ave. and Broadway will be closed to vehicular traffic from 42nd to 47th Sts. at 12:01 a.m. Friday, a full 24 hours before the turn of the century.

The National Weather Bureau is forecasting no precipitation and temperatures ranging from 35 to 40 degrees Friday night.

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http://www.nydailynews.com/1999-12-29/News_and_Views/City_Beat/a-51809.asp

Body Bag Rumor Dead Wrong: City

ears of Y2K terrorism during the Times Square millennium celebration are spurring wild rumors that the city has stockpiled hundreds of thousands of body bags and will use the ice at Madison Square Garden as a morgue.

City and federal officials involved in disaster planning are denying  and in some cases laughing at  reports that 250,000 body bags were purchased and are being stored at the Police Academy on E. 20th St.

"There have been no body bags bought for the millennium celebration," said Deputy Chief Thomas Fahey, a police spokesman. "The only body bags that were bought are for the normal needs of the medical examiner's office."

Several thousand bags are bought each year by the city, Fahey said.

"We can categorically deny that any body bags have been bought for New Year's Eve. ... It is one of numerous rumors being circulated," he said.

Hokie---------> Failed to comment on rumor of bags "delivered" not purchased, courtesy of feds.

-- Hokie (va@va.com), December 29, 1999

Answers

Thanks, Hokie, for running down the body bag thing. I felt queasy about having posted that one.

-- Thinman (thinman38@hotmail.com), December 29, 1999.

"Meanwhile, the Housing Authority has sent a letter to its 600,000 tenants, advising them to brace for a litany of possible breakdowns: from a blackout to a banking disaster. "

Thats the ticket. Tell poor people that all hell is going to break loose and start doing preps NOW.

Might as well tell them how to riot efficiently in the cold.

-- hamster (hamster@mycage.com), December 29, 1999.

Hamster, you're absolutely right. The Housing Authority is needlessly scaring those tenants who can read. However, in my experience as a former feral slum dweller, by the time these people have begun to be afraid, it will all be over. Most of them have been relying on other people their whole lives (and blaming others for their misfortunes). They will believe up until the last minute that somebody will take care of them. I asked one woman I know who is on the dole what she thought of Y2K. She told me she believed it was all something that the government could make go away by pressing a button "somewhere". Sadly, poverty and ignorance are brothers more often than not.

-- Simpleminded (nope@wont.never), December 29, 1999.

"We can categorically deny that any body bags have been bought for New Year's Eve. ... It is one of numerous rumors being circulated," he said."

Of course it's not for New Year's Eve. The cleanup will begin on New Year's day. Maybe I'm just a tad bit cynical of beaurocrats.

-- Phread (lurking@y2k.com), December 29, 1999.

No PHread -- I think you're absolutely right. This is classic Clinton-speak, bureacratese: "There have been no bodybags bought for the MILLENIUM CELEBRATION"; "The City buys thousands of body bags every year" etc. There is laughter but no direct denial: "We have not purchased 250,000 bodybags for potential deaths in consequence of Y2K outages, etc."

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-- SH (squirrel@huntr.com), December 29, 1999.