Just saw Kiro 7 news and the city of Seattle (who say they are 99% ready and will be 100% by Dec 31st) has apparently given warning to residents to prepare for the rollover with 7 days of food and water (just in case). Also shown were a lot of people coming out of a store with lots of water and food and saying they were taking precautions. Any NorthWesters know why all of a sudden the "3 day" standard prep period has been doubled?

In Vancouver 2 days ago I listened to a radio phone in show whose subject was Y2K prep and was astonished at how nobody mentioned even the possibility of disruptions, in fact many were mentioning how the whole thing is a hoax, some even angry that there was a radio show 'scaring seniors out of there wits'

-- Alistair (vancouver@bc.com), December 21, 1999

Answers

Vancouver, BC Nobody prepping here except just a few of us. Home Depot in the city has seen some pick-up but not much (spoke to a sales rep there yesterday). I also agree with you that most think it a hoax. It is so sad! People have become totally complacent about the reliablity of technology. They are also very very spoiled.

Gonna be one heck of a wake up call here. BC Hydro browned out Coquitlam tonight. I'm hearing that Vancouver Island is toast and will most likely go dark in the NYr.

May GOD be with us all!

-- believertoo (bcboy@homey.com), December 21, 1999.

My brother states he watched MSNBC yesterday and they took a call regarding opinions on Y2K. John Gibson asked one guy if he was prepping and the guy started responding "yes", then John gave the quaint little wave to the screen and said "bye, bye", cutting the guy off before he could even say hardly anything. The subject was quickly changed and no other calls were taken. BTW, MSnbc. Microsoft ? Hmm.

I can't stand that little p*cker-gnatt anyway. (***just my opinion***)

-- Rob (maxovrdrv51@hotmail.com), December 21, 1999.

What an *sshole!!!!! I woulda been totally pissed off if I saw that.

GRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

-- preparing (preparing@home.com), December 21, 1999.

Well, this is just a guess, but given that Seattle police were flagrantly unprepared for WTO (400 officers to over 40,000 protesters on November 30), and given that the City of Seattle made a huge tactical blunder in how it chose to organize the protests, and given that Seattle judges are about to arraign an Algerian terrorist who was just picked up crossing into sleepy little Port Angeles with 32 ounces of nitroglycerine splashing around in a jar in his trunk, and given that intelligence agents suspect said terrorist may have had designs to blow up the Space Needle on New Year's Eve, where thousands of revelers will be gathering, and given that police haven't yet found his accomplice, who they think may have escaped on foot from the ferry ... given all this, it could be that Seattle officials have decided to be more cautious and prudent in their Y2k estimations. "Cautious and prudent" meaning an open, nearly hangdog willingness to prepare for worst-case scenarios.

Just a guess, though.

-- Celia Thaxter (celiathaxter@yahoo.com), December 22, 1999.

Alistair

Was listening to Cfox and they had a younger guy on worried about going to the Kiss concert downtown for Y2K. I was suprized to hear that on the radio. If you folks have anything interesting about the power outage I would like to hear about it. I am over in Victoria, hoping the power doesn't go out although it shouldn't be much of a problem for me personally. I know that my local food stores have or are mentioning to prepare for Y2K, the one around the corner which is really busy has signs all over the place, wild.

Good to see more BC folks posting eh!

-- Brian (imager@home.com), December 22, 1999.

The reason may lie in Lord's Navy reports. The first set he put out, showed Seattle has having total failure in gas, sewer, water and electricty. I would guess the navy was onto something.

-- Interested Spectator (is@the_ring.side), December 22, 1999.

WAKE UP! Koskinen's "3 day storm" doesn't mean three days of preps, it means the preps you'd need for a 3 day storm plus aftermath. Remember, he went from "normal 4 day holiday weekend" to "3 day storm". That wasn't a step down (4 to 3), it was a step up (4 to 7+), he's just using weasel words to avoid alarming JQP, while covering his own back because he later claim that he always meant 7+ days.

He has mumbled figures of a week or more when pressed - qualifying it with the usual blah about the actual preps being dependent on your situation, remoteness, weather, and the Red Cross recommends always having modest preps on hand anyway, yada yada - but the main media reporting (what there is of it) is still fixating on the "3 day for all" misquote.

-- Servant (public_service@yahoo.com), December 22, 1999.

Alistair and whomever else lives around Seattle,

If you would check the TVW and CTV, the Government channels, you would have seen information about Y2K being broadcast for months. They have complete information on all utilities ans government and city, county state Y2K status.They have been giving more and better prep info than you can even get here. Turn off pay for view and you might learn something. They have even allowed every single whiney "protester" who walked into tear gas testify about their experiences. If I see one more person say "Oh I just went down town to see the riots and got gassed when I got in the middle of them!! I wasn't even a protester!". It seems they walked into the middle of a riot and expected the tear gass to be selective and avoid them because they were only their to watch. When someone mentioned people should not have brought their children into the middle of a riot, they were boo'ed. The mentality is pathetic. You can even go on the internet and look up washington state's webpage where you can put in your zip code and every utility and business and it will give you their compliance and refer you to their website so you can check and see just what they did to get ready.

We were the first State to have it's Government computer remediated for Y2K, before some states were even aware of Y2K.

Anyone who decides to do any looting during the Y2K rollover is in for a rude awakening! After the WTO riots the "people" in Seattle are not going to let them get away with it ever again.

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), December 22, 1999.

Rob,

Sheez! Guy shoulda answered "No more than Bill Gates" sheez!~

-- Hokie (nn@va.com), December 22, 1999.

Hokie,

Right on ! LOL

-- Rob (maxovrdrv51@hotmail.com), December 22, 1999.

Anyone who decides to do any looting during the Y2K rollover is in for a rude awakening! After the WTO riots the "people" in Seattle are not going to let them get away with it ever again.

Well, Cherri, are you going to be among the 60,000 estimated to gather at the foot of the Space Needle on New Year's Eve? If so, we'll look to see you protecting any Queen Anne businesses and homes from property damage. After all, they only plan to have 900 officers on the streets then. Still, it's over double what they had on the streets during WTO.... I wonder why?

If I see one more person say "Oh I just went down town to see the riots and got gassed when I got in the middle of them!! I wasn't even a protester!"

I'm not sure where you live, Sherri, but in my residential neighborhood, people were leaving their apartments because tear gas was drifting from the streets into their rooms. When they came out into the street for air, they were gassed again. But I guess these quiet folks were just being "whiney."

By the way, Sherri, I don't often watch television. However, if you still read print journalism, I suggest you visit the Seattle Times's article "There was unrest even at the top during WTO riots" (http://archives.seattletimes.com/cgi- bin/texis.mummy/web/vortex/display?storyID=385a0a046&query=WTO). If the URL doesn't work, go to the Seattle Times archive for December 16 and read the article. It provides a lengthy overview of what really went wrong with the WTO planning. In a nutshell, Sherri, the protesters were organized. The police and the city were not.

-- Celia Thaxter (celiathaxter@yahoo.com), December 22, 1999.