The American Red Cross, at their site http://www.redcross.org/disaster/safety/y2k.html is now recommending at least "minimal" preparations of a week's worth of food, water, medicines, cash, extra clothing, so on, and so on.

Now, I know this is not a lot at this point, but it IS a start toward moving this issue a notch closer to the American mainstream of consciousness.

They are also recommending moving to "shelters" if needed, Quote:

___ Be prepared to relocate to a shelter for warmth and protection during a prolonged power outage or if for any other reason local officials request or require that you leave your home. Listen to a battery-operated radio or television for information about where shelters will be available.

unfortunately, they don't talk about who is stocking the shelters yet.

If this is old news, my apologies.

We will get this issue "mainstream" yet, hopefully without panic. We can get through it if we work together.

-- Jon Williamson (pssomerville@sprintmail.com), December 23, 1998

Answers

For what it is worth, this may be of value in helping to persuade DGI "holdouts" that Y2K is real. I mean, the Red Cross is about as mainstream and well respected as they come, totally immune to any accusations of "spreading hype for the money" or whatever.

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), December 23, 1998.

What we need is for Elizabeth Dole or Robert Dole to come out and do an interview at length about why it is so vital that people begin to prepare. If that were to happen you would see y2k gain incredible amount of legitimacy over night.

Mike =================================================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), December 23, 1998.

>> require that you leave your home

Can some expert enlighten us whether they have the power to "require" this ? Pretty important issue, I would think, especially with everybody stashing so much stuff. Personally, I'd rather go down with the ship than become a refugee.

-RC

-- Runway Cat (runway_cat@hotmail.com), December 23, 1998.

Jon, my guess is the shelters will be stocked by community groups and church groups who have "gotten it" by now. As soon as I can, I'm going to bombard my church with info, and thank you to the person who posted that site with the letter to parishes, which I'll be using. Certainly, FEMA hasn't "gotten it" yet, nor have most of the counties.

-- jhollander (hollander@ij.net), December 23, 1998.

Me too, RC! Wanna die by myself in my own bed, thankee. Shelters -- crowded, smelly, pick up foot fungus (incurable;(), other communicable ickies, no privacy, lotsa depressed ppl, simmering tempers, eebie jeebies! I'm sorta a hermit anyway, couldn't handle a shelter for an hour. Seems like whenever there's hurricanes, volcanoes, etc, & FEMA evacuates, there are always those who ride it out at home. Haven't seen anybody *forced* to leave, only told that they stay at their own risk and won't be rescued.

For Y2K bad case scenarios, I realize there might be freezing, water pipe breaks, sewer back-ups, rioting mobs, looting fires spreading, gas pipe explosion fires, chemical clouds drifting, etc. Read an article where gas masks are selling briskly for Y2K. Those get uncomfortable after a few hours ...

Still would rather die of whatever (probably starvation) in bed rather than go to the shelters. The sociable folks, on the other hand, might not be all that bothered ...

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), December 23, 1998.

What happens to our "stuff" if we go to a shelter? I'll tell you. It's given to all those DGIs and DWGIs who didn't prepare! No thanks, I'll stick it out with my group.

-- Flagirl (Filterlady@aol.com), December 24, 1998.