The regular posts by linkmeister and Stan (in particular) are excellent reference sources, and are invaluable for anyone wanting to educate themselves or prepare properly. Many many thanks are due to them for providing them.

But we now have 21 days to go. It takes a long time to read enough of these articles to even begin to Get It. There just isn't time for people to Get It and THEN act. Remember, there's no practical difference between a GI and a panicked DGI trying to buy a two week stock just before rollover. Either one of them will empty the shelves just as well.

Even Stan's excellent "14 days of preps" post requires a reader to buy in to the idea that POST rollover preparations are actually necessary. Let's face it, anyone who hasn't Got It yet probably isn't going to do so until rollover is breathing down our necks.

I strongly believe that the first thing a new reader in this forum should see (for the next week only!) is something like this...

Many government agencies recommend having a Y2K food and water stock of up to two weeks, and there are a lot of people planning to stockpile - 30% of USA households say they plan to stockpile a MONTH OR MORE of food (there's an article in this forum backing this up. Link?)

Most of them haven't started yet.

Because of this, you need to buy supplies for you and your loved ones, and you need to do it NOW. You need to do this regardless of what you believe will happen after rollover, and even regardless of what actually WILL happen. You need to buy now simply because there might not be anything left to buy later.

You really, really will not want to have to go near a supermarket in the week between Christmas and New Year.

To become part of the solution rather than part of the problem, you need to go out today and buy enough of the food and other non-perishable supplies that you would normally buy to take you two weeks into the new year. Don't buy anything special, just get your normal canned, dried and frozen goods, toilet paper, toothpaste, etc.

After you have done that, THEN you can start reading these articles and deciding if you need to make other preparations.

What say you?

-- Servant (public_service@yahoo.com), December 10, 1999

Answers

Sounds good... perhaps as an intro to the "14 days of preps"? And at this point I would emphasize water, WATER, WATER! Make your water preps now.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), December 10, 1999.

It sounds good to me. Is there anyway the board can be set up so that message will stay at the top of the list?

Time is short. Don't put it off.

gene

-- gene (ekbaker@essex1.com), December 10, 1999.

Hi Linda,

The problem with water is that you first have to convince a DGI that that there might be real problems after rollover. The food/toilet paper issue is different, you can justify it on grounds of plain old human greed. It's just an IMHO, but I think it's more important to get people's cupboards (and even fridges and freezers) filled right now, this week.

Remember, most people (reading this list) will have access to a tap and a bathtub, so they can "stockpile" water almost right up to the rollover without even leaving their homes. What we need to do is to get as many of them as possible into the supermarkets now so there isn't so much of a panic later.

Not that I'm kidding myself that more than a couple of people might be helped by this advice. But it would be worth it if even one person got up from their keyboard and went and bought some rice and beans.

-- Servant (public_service@yahoo.com), December 10, 1999.

There is another aspect to preps they are predicting an inflation- ary depression. There will be shortages and in the end prices will reflect the shortages. If you buy it now you wont pay high later. So the month or two wont save you money later. From what I hear June and July will be the beginnings of real problems. So anything I mean anything you can get now on sale or cheap buy it. Shoelaces, lightbulbs, duct tape etc. The shortages are not linked to just food.

-- Susan Barrett (sue59@bellsouth.net), December 10, 1999.

Servant... you're right of course, they need to do any shopping YESTERDAY. But suddenly I am feeling an intense pressure to [FINALLY] do my own water preps.. this in spite of living in the mountains where the water starts. I just anticipate that glitch-caused water problems may start showing up BEFORE rollover as water districts do [late] end-of-year testing. Not based on any inside knowledge.. just seeing more glitch stories showing up, and wonder if water could be affected way before people think of filling their bathtubs New Year's Eve.

[Still waiting, Stan, for that filter. Hope it comes soon]

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), December 10, 1999.

Servant -

Thanks for the post.

What you are really recommending is that folks should do at least THREE weeks of preps RIGHT NOW - two weeks for after the rollover, and also for the week after Christmas.

I can still conveniently buy fresh produce and dairy products in the supermarket, but I was prepared as of Thanksgiving to not have to step into a store again until sometime next year. Any extra time we have now is just a bonus.

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), December 10, 1999.

Servant-

This is great! Just what I was waiting for, to get some words of wisdom to help me prepare without a lot of searching. Time is limited and wish I had started sooner. Thanks for looking out for those of us just starting and hungry for more right now information. This post is excellent. Keep the review on how to prepare coming! You are indeed helping someone.

LAB

-- Lorrie Brown (labfaith@aol.com), December 10, 1999.

Erk, that was just a draft. I was hoping someone with more savvy would come up with a more useful post. The idea I was trying to get across was that it's better to buy just about anything right NOW, than trying to buy the right thing in a couple of weeks time. And that it's just NOT IMPORTANT whether new readers Get It, as long as they do some prepping this week (10th-17th December).

That's why I included frozen food. You'll see arguments in here that the power is going to go off or become dirty, but you could buy three weeks of frozen food and two weeks of canned, and eat your freezer empty by the 31st. The idea is just to keep you out of the shops when they are going to be the busiest.

Also, if you're worried that this whole Y2K thing might be a con, then don't buy anything you wouldn't normally buy. The only advice that I would give is that you'll want to be able to eat much of that food straight from the can if you have to - Y2K aside, you could lose power to a winter storm any time.

You'll pay a premium of about 0.5% (in lost interest) if you buy five weeks of food today. But they you won't have to struggle through the crowds later. Isn't that worth it?

Of course, AFTER you've got those 5 weeks, you'll want to read the articles in here and see why it might be a good idea to store water and think about alternative ways of heating and cooking. But time is short. Buy now, investigate tomorrow.

-- Servant (public_service@yahoo.com), December 10, 1999.