72% do not plan to stockpile food or water - hey wasn't it a recent 72% Clinton approval rating!?!

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

"72 percent of those polled said they had no plans to stockpile food or water".......

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly half of Americans surveyed in a new poll said they would avoid traveling by plane on or around January 1, 2000, when experts fear air traffic control could be snarled by major computer failures.

Nearly two-thirds of the 1,032 adults polled said they planned to seek extra confirmation of their bank accounts, retirement funds or other financial records, a new survey released Wednesday found.

Despite their concerns, 55 percent said they believed the so-called ``millennium bug'' would cause only minor problems. The poll was conducted by the Gallup organization for the National Science Foundation and USA Today.

Computers running crucial corporate operations, not to mention power stations, air traffic control, banking, and government social services, are exposed to a potentially huge problem with comparatively trivial origins.

``With a full year before the year 2000, American industry, government and academia are largely aware of what they need to do to be fully prepared,'' said George Strawn, the foundation's computer networking division director.

The Year 2000 or ``Y2K'' problem stems from an old programming shortcut that resulted in many computers being unable to recognize the date change of the year 2000. If left uncorrected, some computers could view the year 2000 as 1900, generating errors or system crashes.

In April, Transportation Department officials told a Senate Commerce Committee that only a quarter of the nation's critical air traffic control systems were certified as ready for 2000.

Other government agencies also face potential problems.

Forty-six percent of those surveyed by Gallup Dec. 9-13 said they expected some air traffic control systems to fail; and nearly two-thirds said banking and accounting systems would fail, possibly causing errors in employee paychecks, government payments or other automated financial transactions.

Forty-nine percent said they plan to take steps to make sure their personal computers are programmed correctly, but an equal number said they would wait and see what happened.

Eighty-two percent said they were confident that U.S. corporations and large businesses will have upgraded their computer systems to correct ``Y2K'' problems.

Despite media reports about people preparing for food delivery or water systems to fail, 72 percent of those polled said they had no plans to stockpile food or water; while over 80 percent said they did not plan to buy generators or wood stoves.

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), January 01, 1999

Answers

Sorry, I see this has already been posted, but 72% seems like a lot of dumb Americans, this must be a mistake, shurely?

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), January 01, 1999.

No,I think 72% is good. From what I see I thought it would have been more like 95%. That says to me that there are 5% that admit it and talk about it on the various forums, and 18% that are doing it and not admitting or at least not talking about it much. It's improving, but but fast enough or in time? I think not, bearing in mind it may come long before 1/1/00.

-- Sue (deco100@aol.com), January 01, 1999.

keep in mind also that there is a human tendency to say someone is doing something they believe that they should be doing, even if they really aren't. In other words, it's probably higher than 72% since part of the response will be from talkers rather than doers.

Arlin

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), January 01, 1999.


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