Please go down 44-45 posts to the one entitled Y2K? Y Many Shrug (Washington Post) for my response which gives highlights of last evening's meeting sith our county officials/utilities. More interestingly, it shares a telling conversation with a couple of officials post-meeting. Gives an idea why nothing is being done.

I forgot to add to it one other nugget. These officials told me that "they [everyone who is DGI] have access to the same information that you do." (I explained that many do NOT have access to the Internet, and that this is where I obtained my knowledge. And this after (see other post) they'd told me that many live in one room or small apartments, so they couldn't store stuff! How do they think these folk have access to the 'net?!

Isn't it amazing the lack of logic in so many people in high places in this dire time when they need all they can get?

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), August 05, 1999

Answers

Hi Elaine:

Thank you for all your efforts. What a shame that such good information continues to fall on deaf ears....does it sometimes seem like there is an order to all this?

Would you consider posting your Fairfax experience on this thread? Makes it all easier to follow.

Thanks, again.

Anita Evangelista

-- Anita Evangelista (ale@townsqr.com), August 05, 1999.

So, what are you going to do now, Elaine? You have, I think, satisfied yourself that Fairfax County, VA (where I used to live before I re-located to Northwest Arkansas) is heading into Y2K "riding on a smile and a shoeshine" so to speak. What are you going to do now?

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), August 05, 1999.

Last evening I took two long-retired neighbor ladies to the Fairfax County Y2K Community Meeting at our county givernment auditorium. There were about 70 people present. They did not permit dialogue, but rather, we could submit questions on paper, which means there was no time for interaction and refutation.

Every single panelist representing public utilities and services said the same thing: we are/will be ready. The questions were of such a calibre of information that I realized that many of the attendees were thoroughly GI, which was borne out later when some of the Y2K Community Action group members spoke with me. However, they and I got the "canned" answers written by PR experts.

What troubled me most, among several troubling things, was that the person responsible for the entire Y2K effort from the human services branch of county government was recommending only a 3-day supply, "just in case" and sounding quite reassuring. We were told that they didn't yet know where, but they would set up a warming shelter in some high-school when they saw where it was needed...meaning as a crisis was occurring!!!

After the meeting I was speaking with a GI from the NOVA group when this woman and her other agent (forget title) were passing, and I asked her to speak with me. I suggested that if they tell people that they should only prepare for 3 days then if we have an extended power outage and other problems at Y2K, this will not be enough. I said that many do not expect everything to happen at the stroke of midnight, but rather, as the first few weeks of 2000 unfold, thus more food would be necessary. I suggested they suggest a month's food. Know what my answers were? Taxpayers, GIs, and all who care about other people, take a deep breath before reading on!

1. If they don't use the food the first few days, then they will have it later. (I explained 3 days food would still only last 3 days.)

2. If we were to tell them a month, they would panic. (When I explained to them that if handled correctly, they would not, as I did not. That true panic would set in if they were confronted in 2000 with no food or water.)

3. There are people who have little money with which to prepare. (I explained that I live paycheck to paycheck, but told them how I am doing it. I also explained that people on limited incomes could not do it later, but could do it gradually, if only they knew now.)

4. There are people who live in small apartments or one room, and they couldn't store it. (I explained that they could store a month's worth, and that some of us know how to show them how to do it, and know of people with small space who are doing it.)

5. We have 30 high schools in the county, and they could not afford to prepare them all. They could not anticipate where the shelter would be needed ahead of time. (I explained that they could prepare several in strategic locations ahead of time..that I was sure there was money somewhere for this.)

6.They could not follow the City of Manassas: Manassas has only one high school. (I had explained that Manassas, which I learned about on this forum, has an excellent plan they have already been implementing, and I was sure they would be glad to share it.)

Take your blood pressure meds before you read the next incredible line! The other shocker was that the police and fire chiefs told the audience that if the phones went down, I kid you not, that people could go to the nearest fire or police station for help!!!

One of my neighbors exclaimed aloud at this, "Are they kidding, if you or someone in your house is having a heart attack or your house is on fire, you could WALK to a station?!"

The other young GI gentleman who was with me as we spoke to the above women said to them, "We talk and talk to others, but because they do not hear it from a credible official source, they think we are just kooks. They need to hear it from YOU." No response. When my two neighbors pulled me away at 1 p.m., he and his wife were still trying to get through to them.

So you see, no amount of community awareness efforts on our parts will make much of an impression if the leaders are blind leaders of the blind. I intend to confine my efforts to one-by-one enlightenment of others I care about.

Guess the one good thing that came out of the meeting? Two neighbors who are sharp and saw through the spin, and who are now GI!!!

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), August 05, 1999.

---------------------------------------------------------------------- --

Correction: that should read 11 p.m.

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), August 05, 1999.

-- worth repeating (copy@paste.easy), August 05, 1999.

Last evening I took two long-retired neighbor ladies to the Fairfax County Y2K Community Meeting at our county givernment auditorium. There were about 70 people present. They did not permit dialogue, but rather, we could submit questions on paper, which means there was no time for interaction and refutation. Every single panelist representing public utilities and services said the same thing: we are/will be ready. The questions were of such a calibre of information that I realized that many of the attendees were thoroughly GI, which was borne out later when some of the Y2K Community Action group members spoke with me. However, they and I got the "canned" answers written by PR experts.

What troubled me most, among several troubling things, was that the person responsible for the entire Y2K effort from the human services branch of county government was recommending only a 3-day supply, "just in case" and sounding quite reassuring. We were told that they didn't yet know where, but they would set up a warming shelter in some high-school when they saw where it was needed...meaning as a crisis was occurring!!!

After the meeting I was speaking with a GI from the NOVA group when this woman and her other agent (forget title) were passing, and I asked her to speak with me. I suggested that if they tell people that they should only prepare for 3 days then if we have an extended power outage and other problems at Y2K, this will not be enough. I said that many do not expect everything to happen at the stroke of midnight, but rather, as the first few weeks of 2000 unfold, thus more food would be necessary. I suggested they suggest a month's food. Know what my answers were? Taxpayers, GIs, and all who care about other people, take a deep breath before reading on!

1. If they don't use the food the first few days, then they will have it later. (I explained 3 days food would still only last 3 days.) 2. If we were to tell them a month, they would panic. (When I explained to them that if handled correctly, they would not, as I did not. That true panic would set in if they were confronted in 2000 with no food or water.) 3. There are people who have little money with which to prepare. (I explained that I live paycheck to paycheck, but told them how I am doing it. I also explained that people on limited incomes could not do it later, but could do it gradually, if only they knew now.) 4. There are people who live in small apartments or one room, and they couldn't store it. (I explained that they could store a month's worth, and that some of us know how to show them how to do it, and know of people with small space who are doing it.) 4. We have 30 high schools in the county, and they could not afford to prepare them all. They could not anticipate where the shelter would be needed ahead of time. (I explained that they could prepare several in strategic locations ahead of time..that I was sure there was money somewhere for this.) 4.They could not follow the City of Manassas: Manassas has only one high school. (I had explained that Manassas, which I learned about on this forum, has an excellent plan they have already been implementing, and I was sure they would be glad to share it.)

Take your blood pressure meds before you read the next incredible line! The other shocker was that the police and fire chiefs told the audience that if the phones went down, I kid you not, that people could go to the nearest fire or police station for help!!!

One of my neighbors exclaimed aloud at this, "Are they kidding, if you or someone in your house is having a heart attack or your house is on fire, you could WALK to a station?!"

The other young GI gentleman who was with me as we spoke to the above women said to them, "We talk and talk to others, but because they do not hear it from a credible official source, they think we are just kooks. They need to hear it from YOU." No response. When my two neighbors pulled me away at 1 p.m., he and his wife were still trying to get through to them.

So you see, no amount of community awareness efforts on our parts will make much of an impression if the leaders are blind leaders of the blind. I intend to confine my efforts to one-by-one enlightenment of others I care about.

Guess the one good thing that came out of the meeting? Two neighbors who are sharp and saw through the spin, and who are now GI!!!

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), August 05, 1999.

Correction: that should read 11 p.m.

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), August 05, 1999.

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), August 05, 1999.

Thanks, Anita and Jack, for the kind words. I followed your suggestion, Anita, and it did cut and paste well. Never did that on here...am learning. Yes, there does sometimes seem there is an order in all of this...as if we are moving inexorably towards something so big that it cannot be stopped, and that the leaders are blind for a reason beyond fathoming. As I posted a couple of days ago, I am beginning to wonder if survival of the fittest means those who are just willing to contemplate their possible doom and to prepare to avoid it at all costs. That doesn't make them doomers...it makes them survivors of a rare breed, since this is a first in the history of man, if we don't count the Tower of Babel, which was very similar on a smaller scale.

Jack, what am I going to do? If I could do it, I would do exactly what you were able to do, and be out of here like a shot! But that takes the means to do so. So I plan to stand my ground and if necessary, go down fighting, but not grovelling. The police also reassured me last night about the 80 gangs with 800 members in Fairfax County being "no problem" at rollover or without power. And this after I said in open meeting that they are having trouble containing them in good times, and our association is paying off-duty police evenings! It's all so surrealistic...

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), August 05, 1999.

Elaine, I live in Fairfax County and this makes me crazy. I have been handing out stuff for months to neighbors, acquaintances, etc. I have also been trying to get the churches to do something. I am also preparing single page sheets and mailing them to all the major stores and suppliers in my area as to what to stock in the upcoming months. What I love is that "how does anyone hear about the community meetings?" I am writing to the supervisor. She may not listen but I will try again. Anything else you want to do -- like picket? no joke. bumper stickers? this calls for radical measures.

-- T (applpie@aol.com), August 06, 1999.

Elaine,

C'mon this is the same county that orders $35,000 granite conference tables for their government center!! And you must be familiar with the majesty of the mostly empty Government center!! Looks like something J.Paul Getty would build.

Titanic----we don't need more life boats we are unsinkable!!!

-- David Butts (dciinc@aol.com), August 06, 1999.

T, I think that anything a citizen can do privately, as you and I and all the good folks who are trying to alert society, is welcome. However, I am becoming increasingly fatalistic as the days grow shorter until the rollover, about very many listening to us until the "authorities" give us their imprimatur by saying this is for real. Good luck in your efforts. How I hope that good folks like you make it through the "winter storm." (Blizzard? Ice Age?)

-- Elaine SEavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), August 06, 1999.

David, it makes me crazy too! And did you get the implications in what was said to me? That we cannot disturb the sleeping poor, because then they might panic...just let them sleep through the sinking of the Titanic! The inference is also that no one could provide the poor with a month's food and water. As you say, all that mammoth complex of buildings and granite, but we aren't going to either help them or hugely beef up the police and fire department forces, we aren't going to prepare many high schools. Oh, yes. And the mailing to tell them to do three days wasn't going out until October! A GI spoke up in the meeting and said that SHE would personally do the mailing for the county to get it out NOW, as a volunteer, since later would be too late. Then she was told that it would be in September. She told them, still too late. What a sorry mess. Only the supervisor said she is preparing for "not a 2", but a 2' storm."

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), August 06, 1999.