As we're all finding out just now there's certainly no lack of those who want to come out and crow about how wrong all of us survivalists and doomers were about Y2K.

Well, I'm here to tell you all for a certain fact that you were NOT wrong. To date, the Millennium Bug has been a non-event for the most part though we've yet to see what's going to happen tommorow (Monday, first day of the work week). In a charitable spirit I'm willing to concede in advance that will be a non-event too. It may even be that the price of oil (and thus gasoline, heating oil, LPG and so on) won't go up because of it. I'll concede it all.

So what.

Folks, there's 3.5 million people in France just at the moment without electrical power in January from one of the worst storms ever to hit Europe in recorded history. A couple of years ago there was this ice storm went through Quebec, Northern New York state, Maine and other states. Remember that? Remember how many folks went without electricity in midwinter because they had all electric houses?

There's a sight of folks still in North Carolina needing homes and replacement of possesions lost in the worst flooding ever to hit the state.

Weren't too long ago that a fair part of Texas was trying to wash into the sea from the flooding there. Couple of years ago Florida had its worst fire season in history. How long ago was the Northridge earthquake in California? How about the other major quakes?

Is there any state in the union that's immune from natural disasters? If there is, please let me know, the wife and I will quit our jobs and move there tommorow. Never mind man made disasters. Those can happen anywhere there are men.

Folks, these are the reasons you should have been preparing all along. We've known all along that Y2K might turn out to be a non-event (not that it is has been shown to be, just yet) and a one-time event never to repeated on such a wide scale again. So what? Natural and man-made disasters never go out of style. You have plenty of good reasons to prepare.

Let the fools crow. They'll be the ones come hat in hand to the shelters the first time the disaster happens to them.

.......Alan.

-- A.T. Hagan (athagan@netscape.net), January 02, 2000

Answers

Thanks, Alan: We all need to have these things pointed out on a regular basis. It is 9.00am Sydney time, and I am sitting in the offices where I am a contractor, having started up the network and all the PCs this morning. They came up fine. Some of the guys are making comments about Y2K being nothing, but at least a few others have the brains to realise it is too damn early yet to crow. WE DID WHAT WE BELIEVED TO BE RIGHT, and we would do it again. Whether Y2K turns out to be a Bump In The Road (BITR) or The End Of The World As We Know It (TEOTWAWKI). Those who just assumed the powers-that-be and the media were right have been, in my opinion, gullible. (I would use the word niaive (pronounced ny-eeve) but I can't remember the spelling!) Oops!

-- David Harvey (vk2dmh@hotmail.com), January 02, 2000.

Sorry. I should have added that it is Monday, 3rd January, 2000, here in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is a public holiday today. The ifficial work week starts tomorrow, Tuesday, 3rd Jan. Because we are on Summer Time at present, we are 11 hours ahead of UTC (Greenwich Mean Time).

-- David Harvey (vk2dmh@hotmail.com), January 02, 2000.

Y2K was just one of many reasons to be prepared. Here in No. Calif. We need to be ready for floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and toxic spills on the Interstate. I am so greatful that we are prepared. I have never known such serenity, knowing that no matter what happens, we are prepared. It has been so nice, when my hubby and I were both sick, to be able too fix meals for my family without going to the store. I never have to run out for some forgotten item. I love this and I will never go back to JIT shopping. Please keep this forum up. We have all learned so much.

-- Homeschooling Grandma (mlaymon@glenn-co.k12.ca.us), January 02, 2000.

Do hold onto your preps for awhile, because we don't yet know what may happen to the supply chain. Seeing what happened to Hershey, Revlon, Fruit of the Loom, etc., etc., and knowing that small businesses and suppliers may STILL not be able to deliver promptly, and knowing that the stock market bubble may still burst, causing a recession, we should still be being prudent. Saturday on "Inside Washington" my favorite member of the panel, Charles Krauthhammer, stated emphatically that he still expects a major terrorist bombing in the USA in a major city in the next few years. Today one of my execs called frantically on my voice mail even before I'd reached work, to say that an airline didn't have his reservation, when clearly American Express and I did have hard copies of it...it got "lost" at the airline, apparently. That surely has to be a Y2K glitch...never, ever happened in my umpteen years of making travel for numerous execs. So don't let all of your guard down just yet, please. I love you all and want you kept safe!

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), January 03, 2000.