and guess what? The ATM machines were NOT working. They weren't 'down' but they couldn't process any transactions. A teller came out to see what was wrong, couldn't complete the transaction for the customer, sighed and said "it's starting" like she was expecting this to happen. The lady in front of me in line said "Nothing is going to happen. I haven't prepared for anything." The lady in front of her said "The only thing I did was buy extra batteries for my kids GameBoys in case power goes out". I kept my mouth shut.

FWIW, the lines at the bank were out the door. I was only there to get a printout/statement of my account but at least one person was taking out a bunch of cash. When he told the teller he wanted to empty all but $100 from his account they led him to the back of the bank. I was out of there before he emerged so I don't know if he got his cash or not but I could see that the tellers were all quite harried.

Also, my wife went out to get some ice for the party tonite and said they have a four gallon limit on water at the supermarket. She said the place was a madhouse. Boy oh boy am I glad we stocked up...

-TECH32-

-- TECH32 (TECH32@NOMAIL.COM), December 31, 1999

Answers

TECH,

Where are you again?

Thanks!

Mike

======================================================================

-- Mike Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), December 31, 1999.

Did the bank manager take that guy in the back room and beat him?

-- Earl (eshuholm@tstar.net), December 31, 1999.

Humm.

Thanks.

Will check in my little corner of Silicon Valley in a few hours.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 31, 1999.

The reason they did that "for you insulting idiots" is because if tech32 heard it then other customers may have heard it and that could cause a run... Damn, It doens't take a GED people...

-- Culturepill (disaster@midnight.com), December 31, 1999.

Hmmm, I have been having trouble with my bank ATM for the past 3 days. My local branch's ATM has been down since Tuesday (it usually never takes that long to fix them) and so I went to another ATM (same bank, in a convenience store) and got a message that the transaction was unavailable. Went to same ATM today and worked just fine. This is First Union bank in New Jersey.

-- Lurker (eye@spy.net), December 31, 1999.

Diane, I am glad to see you posting here again. Hopefully this post of yours will not be delted like your earlier post about the power in New Zealand was.

-- Butt Nugget (catsbutt@umailme.com), December 31, 1999.

I'm in Northern NJ. The bank teller was a she and the manager wasn't around since the ATMs are out front.

-TECH32-

-- TECH32 (TECH32@NOMAIL.COM), December 31, 1999.

I just came back from my atm-first union in nj-and had absolutely no problem. there were no huge lines. Also, I bank with a new york bank, very large, and There have been no lines there and no problems with the atms.

-- tom ahlers (honeymooners98@worldnet.att.net), December 31, 1999.

Lurker

My mother-in-law could not get money out of her account from the First Union branch up here in Wilkes-Barre because-as she was informed by the teller- all the computers were down. This was on Wednesday. Apparently, everything was back to normal yesterday.

-- JR.MINT (duckand@cover.maybe), December 31, 1999.

No lines at any bank around here. It is way too late for there to be bank runs. I used to be convinced it was going to happen. I'll be glad to empty my deposit box next week and start getting interest again.

My worries about this cost me more than a pair of name-brand sneakers. Oh well. I think I can live with that.

-- Gus (y2kk@usa.net), December 31, 1999.

I'm not aware of any banking problems in northwestern Ohio. Yesterday I cashed a check for work I had done earlier this year. I walked into the bank, which had only two other customers, and the clerks were smiling and obviously relieved that no one was pulling any bank runs in the region.

I left and said, "Happy Y2K". One clerk smiled and said, "I like that."

Apparently banking problems are regional. None here. Yet...

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), December 31, 1999.