The California Governor's Office of Emergency Services now has a Y2K individual and family preparedness guide online at www.oes.ca.gov (and sorry, folks, but it's in Adobe Acrobat, which shut me down when I tried to print it). Anyhow, they are recommending "that all households be prepared to be self-sufficient (able to live without running water, electricity and/or gas, telephone and assistance from safety devices) for three to seven days." In addition to the usual advice about stocking up on food and water, they suggest alternate heating and cooking methods and suggest that "you have enough sturdy covered garbage containers to hold two weeks' worth of refuse should Y2K disrupt garbage collection." Other highlights:

"Cash: Prepare for possible disruption of electrical power. Have some extra cash on hand in case computer-controlled electronic transactions involving ATM cards, credit cards, and the like cannot be processed. You should have already purchased your emergency supplies before the arrival of Y2K. The amount of cash you keep on hand should be based on your family's needs. Keep in mind that keeping large amounts of cash in the home could make you vulnerable to theft. Please use discretion and common sense when deciding this. Keep cash in a safe place and withdraw money from your bank in small amounts." [Hmmm, nothing about the dangers of bank failures if we all take our money out.]

This one's for you, Diane: "Do not overlook the value of working with your community, neighborhood, or religious organizations. All these can be your partners in preparedness planning."

"Learn more about the Y2K problem and its potential impact on you and your community. Referring to the Internet is an excellent way to stay current of Y2K and its implications." [See? We're providing a valuable community service on this forum.]

"Above all, don't panic." Get involved in your preparedness planning now!"

Overall, a pleasant surprise, I thought.

-- Pam G. (Pam95818@aol.com), March 02, 1999

Answers

Pam, thanks, this is great, BUT I cannot find it! Which category, ie picture, does one click to get to it? Totally lost looking around in there, and the graphics stop loading.

Do you have the exact URL of the page from which one launches the document? Help!

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), March 02, 1999.

Leska,

On the opening page is a Y2K symbol, sort of to the top, and in the 2nd column of 'pictures' Click on it. This takes you to all the Y2K stuff. Scroll about 3/4 of the way down the page, it's a hotlink titled something like Individual Preparedness Guide.

-- De (dealton@concentric.net), March 02, 1999.

Hi, Leska -

The url for this website never says anything but www.oes.ca.gov. When all the graphics load, you'll see one that says Y2K. Click on that and it will take you to a page dated January 5, 1999 (but ignore the date -- I visit this page often and I know this preparedness guide was just added in the last day or so). Scroll down till you get to the Y2K Individual Preparedness Guide and voila! After you click on that, you end up having to deal with all of that Adobe Acrobat awfulness, however, and I can't help you with that. Hope you can get into the site -- I was frankly pretty amazed at the kinds of things they were willing to say.

-- Pam G. (Pam95818@aol.com), March 02, 1999.

De & Pam, thank you!
Yea, got it, super doc :-D
For some reason, the first few times, the graphics stopped loading and we couldn't tell what was supposed to be on the page.

Got some dear ppl to send this to, who are still at the stage where they give weight and legitimacy most to gov docs. Maybe this'll get them started! Funny how ya can love some ppl even when they're stubborn and resistant to accepting anything new. *sigh* why do we love them anyway? Because many years ago they were better and inspired us.

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxx

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), March 02, 1999.

Pam,

Thanks. Will deal with it tomorrow. Burned out on Adobe today with the Senate report.

BTW, increase your Adobe Acrobat S/W size and the browser size. The senate report's graphics intensive stuff kept hanging me up until I did that, then it worked fine!

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), March 02, 1999.

Direct link

And for the link challenged:

http://www.oes.ca.gov/OESHomeP.nsf/Images/Y2KNewsletter/$file/Y2Kn'ltr .pdf

Adobe Reader required.

Enjoy.

Dan

-- Dan (DanTCC@Yahoo.com), March 03, 1999.

Thanks for the link, Dan.

-- Pam G. (Pam95818@aol.com), March 03, 1999.

Gosh Dan,

Ya beat me too it! Now I need some "magic" help.

The PDF file download will only work with AA 3.6 and I can only run AA 3.0 on my little 'ole ancient Mac.

Got suggestions?

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), March 03, 1999.