[Y2K Media Coverage]In case of Y2K chaos, upscale family goes rustic-The Oakland Press(MI) 19990701Rgreenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread |
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One of the most down-to-earth Y2K stories -- transcribed below -- I've seen make it into the mainstream print media. We should've seen more stories like this one long ago.
Regards, Bob Mangus
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THURSDAY JULY 1 1999 -- THE OAKLAND PRESS -- PAGE A-11
PREPARING FOR THE MILLENNIUM
In case of Y2K chaos, upscale family goes rustic
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BRENT WOOD, Tenn. -- How concerned is Jamie O'Rourke about the Y2K computer bug?
Enough to sell his million-dollar home near Nashville with its pool and tennis courts, pack up his wife and children, and move into a double-wide trailer on 350 acres near the Alabama state line.
Enough to start stockpiling supplies and have his children learn to farm so the family can raise food if none is available elsewhere.
Enough to ignore those who say what he is doing seems crazy.
O'Rourke, a successful businessman, believes it's possible computer problems will be so widespread Jan. 1 that power grids will fail throughout the country.
That would mean no running water for many people, no way to keep food fresh or frozen, no store ATMs dispensing cash. Grocery shelves would be cleaned out within days. And that could cause a panic, he said.
"I think you have a very real potential for anarchy and chaos, which we've seen in our times. Watts. The L.A. riots. When the Chicago Bulls win. It doesn't take much, said O'Rourke, 47.
No one is sure how serious any problems related to the Y2K bug may be. The glitch could occur if computers originally programmed to recognize only the last two digits of a year assume it is 1900 instead of 2000. Utilities, government agencies and businesses are spending billions to test and prepare their computers for New Year's Day.
While O'Rourke agrees the worst-case scenario of failed electric grids leading to anarchy is far-fetched, he isn't taking any chances.
"The question becomes, what can you assume? And in the final analysis, I think that you cannot assume the power will be on," he said. "Therefore, in order to prepare, you have to assume it's going to be off. That's where I am."
So O'Rourke, his wife, Cyd, and eight of the nine children, ages 4 to 21, moved from their 9,000-square-foot home in Brentwood, about 15 miles south of Nashville, to a 2,000-square-foot mobile home. The couple's eldest daughter lives with her husband in Oklahoma City.
The location of their new home -- which O'Rourke does not want publicized -- is so out of the way he still sometimes gets lost trying to find it. The family's closest neighbors are Amish.
Not long after moving in, O'Rourke's younger spent a morning happily gathering hen's eggs in a blue wire basket and washing them in the sink. But the family couldn't cook them: They hadn't unpacked the frying pan yet.
Mrs. O'Rourke said her friends joke that she's like Eva Gabor from the old "GREEN Acres" TV comedy about urban sophisticates taking up a rustic life.
Even within the family, the decision seemed strange at first, her husband said.
"In the beginning, some of the older children said, "What's going on?" But as we've discussed it as a family, I think they've realized this is what we should do," O'Rourke said. "Now, if we voted whether to move to a farm, and Y2K were not an issue, they would probably have been against it."
The move now completed, 15-year-old Michael said it was a big change. But, he added, "I actually like this place."
Daniel, 11, said it's hard leaving his friends, but "it's kind of fun learning new things," such as how the trailer's plumbing works and how fresh cow's milk tastes. "Better than store-bought."
Caroline, 6, likes milking the family's three cows, gathering eggs and catching butterflies.
How did all of this change come about?
It got started a little more than a year ago when friends mentioned the millennium bug to O'Rourke, and at first he did not understand.
"I said, 'Well, if it's a computer problem, I have computer people and ... they'll let me know," said O'Rourke, who employs 30 at his Brentwood office and another 100 at a plant in Mexico. His company, Kidpower, makes swimming pool floats, glow-in-the-dark flying discs and other toys.
"And that's kind of where I left it," he said, until last summer when some of his customers -- Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target and Toys R Us -- sent letters asking whether his company would be Y2K compliant. His bank asked, too.
He read more about Y2K and started paying close attention when "credible" people such as Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan talked about it.
Then he found some people he knew were stockpiling food and buying wood stoves, just in case. He was disappointed they hadn't told him but he understood why.
They didn't want to be thought of as foolish or extremist," O'Rourke said.
Nor does O'Rourke, but he's speaking out anyway.
In fact, when O'Rourke decided to move his family from their home of 12 years and settle on the rural property, he set aside part of the land for friends worried about Y2K, selling them five-acre parcels at cost.
The O'Rourkes bought a five-bedroom trailer because he didn't want to sink a lot of cash and time into building a house. They got a wood stove and dug a well that is pumped manually. They bought long-burning candles, enough food to make it until the next harvest, and non-hybrid seeds to ensure their plants continue reproducing if no new seeds are around to buy. They bought a diesel-fueled generator, to be backed up by a windmill and a solar power system.
"We can do some heroic things in January, but they won't mean much compared to the semi-heroic things we do today to encourage people to be prepared, just in case," O'Rourke said.
He hasn't forgotten his employees. Kidpower, which has had its computers retrofitted and tested, will shut down from Dec. 20 until at least Jan. 20. Before then, workers will get their bonuses and the opportunity to cash in vacation time.
The last few months have been a strain, O'Rourke acknowledges, bur he speaks proudly of how his family has adjusted. Even if nothing happens Jan. 1, he said the move has been worth it.
"We'll all get our Eagle Scout badges, as it were," he said.
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