FWIW, the town in which I live sent out the first notification of the "Y2K Preparedness Pamplets"(sp?). The thing just was awful. I was at a 4-5 for the longest, but after having read the "What to have for Y2K" I realize, that at least in my area, I need to get ready to bail. I'm sitting at about a firm 7-8 because of this.

The "Getting Prepared Checklist" consists of things that took me months to get ready. Now I suppose that you could forseeably get this stuff they 'suggest' if you are well-endowded with a generous trust fund, or are making sick stacks of ducats. But for the ordinary 'Joe" like myself, limited to a budget, and making every cent count, the list is overwhelming to say the least.

Examples like

"SECURE YOUR WATER NEEDS"

"Plan on at least one gallon per person per day for one 7 day week. Save water in sterilized plastic container or purchase bottled water." Sounds good, right? ok read on..."CONSERVE FOR FLUSHING"

Save gray water (bathwater, dishwater, laundry ect. Use unfiltered water for flushing. Have approxamately four gallons per person per day for this on hand."

Sounds like decent,common sense stuff right? Now lets do the math. I've got 3 people in my fam, 3 times 1 gallons equals 3 gallons per day, times 7 days, total = 21 gallons (at the minimum. Thats a lot of water to store in 1 gallon containers, but still within acceptable boundries. But don't forget the graywater! If you stock gray water as well, it means you had to actually save 5 gallons per person per day! This works out to 3 people times 5 gallons is 15 gallons per day. Times 7 days, thats 105 gallons of water. Now this isn't much to those who have the 55 gallon drums, but to the average person, 105 gallons of water takes up a very large amount of space, especially when stored in gallon jugs!

Other things in the leaflet, like the food suggestions of what to stock including potatos, wheat, rice, and oatmeal bother me in the respect that the average person were to follow this, just what the hell are they going to do with a big ole' bucket of wheat? "HmmmYum! Great dinner honey! Lotsa fibre!" Yuk... Nasty. The rice and other things, ok...not bad...but why are the suggestions all what I consider to be "real-long-term" storables? Why not just tell them to get a weeks worth of non refrigerated groceries if it's only gonna be a 3 day storm?

Also, to close the final statement from the town on the 'back cover' of this thing:

"Dear **town name** Resident or Business Owner,

" "**town name** has been preparing for the Y2K Changeover for many months. A Y2K Task Force, consisting of representitives from Fire, Police, Schools, Health, Human Services, Civil Defense, Administration, DPW, Parks, ect has been formed."

"This Task Force has developed a Master Plan with the aid of contingency plans for all our emergency areas. Your Community is prepared. In order to complete our Master Plan, we are asking for your assistance by preparing for any possible disruption on the weekend of December 31st. PREPARE YOUR HOME AS YOU WOULD FOR A BLIZZARD OR SEVERE EMERGENCY! The Town of **town name** is mailing this brochure to every household. Please use it as a checklist to prepare. This way, you will have your own contingency plan."

**town name** Y2K taskforce and the Board of Selectmen.

Mebbe I'm paranoid...but I think this is "a lil' too lil way too late."

-- Billy Boy (Rakkasan101st@Aol.com), December 24, 1999

Answers

21 gallons of drinking water = under $20

people can live without gray water for months

non-refrigerated food for 3 people = under $100 per week (not each, for all 3)

a week's worth of water and food for 3 people can be had for under $100

most people already have shelter

everybody in this country has plenty of clothes, linens, whatever, etc. that could be utilized for keeping warm should fuel not be available

preparing for bare survival doesn't seem that challenging

-- Gus (y2kk@usa.net), December 24, 1999.

Billy Boy's point is well taken.

This is late in December 1999 (give or take only seven days remaining). And it takes a lot of effort to begin to motivate and educate the public. Very little results can be expected from one mailing, placed so late. And I doubt the local supply of food and other materials is large enough to accomodate the entire population.

-- snooze button (alarmclock_2000@yahoo.com), December 24, 1999.

A week of single digit nights will freeze the water of most of these folks who will lack alternative heating methods.

Too little, too late. :-(

-- cgbg jr (cgbgjr@webtv.net), December 24, 1999.

To Billy Boy - I'm wondering how many times you went to the city council meetings or met with your mayor or council members or saw what you could do to make a difference and make this happen earlier. I saw lots of people ready to complain and criticize in my county but NO ONE willing to help with trying to get the local powers that be to wake up and helping with the work and getting the word out.

It takes all of us - its easy to criticize.

-- sheri (wncy2k@nccn.net), December 24, 1999.

uuuhhhh....would have gone, If there were any meetings. And believe you me, I go to all of the meeting. I'm on the Veteran Committee for the town and assit the VA rep with us disabled vets. And yes, I know, to quote billary, "It take a village..."yadda yadda. This is ridiculous.

-- Billy Boy (Rakkasan101st@Aol.com), December 24, 1999.

I went to every local mtg. They really didn't
want to hear what I had to say. They focused
on tsunami and storm scenarios. The electric
company mouthpiece just made fun of those who
thought that there would be problems. "Everthings
going to be alright unless someone hits a
utility pole with their vehicle."

I had overhead charts showing the Gartner graph
of projected infrastructure failures. I kept
them abreast of the latest incidents. They just
DGI or DWGI. A point came where I would not
attend any more because it was too late for
arguments. I just told those that were still
interested to come to this forum. It's still
the best place to find out what's happening.

I assume that this story is the same in most
places. It's too late to change anything now.

"It's all over now Baby Blue" - Dylan

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), December 24, 1999.

As long as you know that you have done the very best that you can!

We can't always wait for others to set something up. I had to demand in my county and thankfully they listened. But if I hadn't done it, NO ONE else would have, I know that much (from no one coming forward to help even after the fact). All I am saying is 'they is we'. The city/county government is us and we can't wait for things to happen, we have to make them happen.

-- Sheri (wncy2k@nccn.net), December 24, 1999.

jackson county where i live sent out the same notice only its been over a year ago. just received a new one yesterday prepare for a week.

ok will do

-- rkrato (RKRATO2862@PHONL.COM), December 25, 1999.