12/15/99; Decatur (IN) Daily Democrat; "Huntington Explosion Cuts Water and Power"

As many as 700 people were left without drinking water and electricity when a Huntington, Indiana, treatment plant exploded and caught fire, authorities said.

Two plant employees suffered second- and third-degree burns in Tuesday's explosion and were taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in Fort Wayne.....

The plant's owner said the employees were in the plant trying to determine why water service to a local subdivision had failed. He said it will be at least two days before service could be restored to the area on a temporary basis. "If we can get it done in two days I'd be very ecstatic," he said.

The Indiana National Guard is bringing water tankers for residents, and local merchants are donating bottled water.

The cause of the blaze still is under investigation. Firefighters had no idea what kind of chemicals were in the building and were unable to find out from the owner or his office manager, said the assistant fire chief. "We're fighting the unknown, and the unknown will bite you hard."

I hope someone somewhere is taking notes!!

-- PillsBury DoughBoy (pbdb98@yahoo.com), December 15, 1999

Answers

Hello, We are collecting data for a study on Y2K anxiety. Specifically, we are interested in people's reactions and attitudes towards Y2K. If you would like to help us out and learn something about the psychology of Y2K, please fill out our short questionnaire. You will contribute to the historical record of people's thoughts before this event. The questionnaire can be found at http://www.victoriapoint.com/catalyst.htm OR http://www.victoriapoint.com/YRQ.htm

Thank you very muchm Richard A. Davis, M.A. Department of Psychology, York University

-- Richard Davis (davisr@yorku.ca), December 15, 1999.

Thanks PillsBury DoughBoy,

I was hoping someone could find an article on line to update my post.

Bardou, Heard anything?

God Bless,

-- Tess (preparingfortheworst@prayingforthebest.com), December 15, 1999.

"We're fighting the unknown, and the unknown will bite you hard."

Pretty much says it all, I think.

-- (cavscout@fix.net), December 16, 1999.

You Hoosiers keep us posted on this one. There was no mention of your fun and games in todays paper here.

In Orange County, CA we had a major water pipeline burst and an automated valve is being checked as one of the possible problems. Thus in some scenarios your water plant and our pipeline might be the first visible embedded chip (remember their dates drift because of less than perfect time production by oscillators) manifestations.

I hope that is not true and we are only looking at statistical probabilities of failure working against us.

-- Dana (A_Non_O_Moose@xxx.com), December 16, 1999.

Haven't heard anything either. Keep us updated.

-- More Dinty Moore (dac@ccrtc.com), December 16, 1999.

cavscout,

You do time in country? "The unknown" = ambush.

Plain and simple.

-- hunter (way@up.north), December 16, 1999.