Initial impressions:

They took it seriously. Even the guy doing major preps was not portrayed (even subtly) as a kook.

Focused way too much on Dec. 31 midnight as the make-or-break moment, as if when we wake up on Jan. 1 and find most things relatively normal, then y2k worries are over.

The Oregon town featured had a major flood a few years ago -- their disaster prep awareness is very atypical. It's a small town and they're located in a great spot on the continent to handle a lot of problems. (In other words, they ain't Detroit.)

Big questions: Was anyone watching? Is John Q. Sixpack *ever* gonna wake up? And if he does, will it matter at this late date?

-- rick blaine (y2kazoo@hotmail.com), August 01, 1999

Answers

Another 20 minits till it comes on here in Michigan. You must be out west?

-- Joe six pac (Lost@y2k.com), August 01, 1999.

No, East Coast. It's 9:38 a.m. right now.

-- rick blaine (y2kazoo@hotmail.com), August 01, 1999.

Talk about strange--we just lost our cable a few minutes before it came on (for the largest cable service in Northern Virginia outside of Washington DC). Now tell me doesn't that just fry you!!

-- T (applpie@aol.com), August 01, 1999.

Saw the CBS piece too. It was straight forward, but bump in the road. The Joe 6 Pack comments (on forum) are some what off base (I think)> First point is that Joe/Joan 6 Pack is stereotypical of ("lower") working class. Many of these people are more concerned than the middle and "upper" class. The 6 Pack crowd does have less income to make serious moves, while the middle class and "upper" can sell the second car, cash in stocks/bonds and take out additional loans to make large bulk purchases, buy an RV or move/rent a country home. These are the people who watch CBS Sunday Morning. These are the ones who seem to believe the bump-in-the-road jive. The 6 Pack crowd would skip to the country (if they don't already live there) in a heartbeat and let go of the rat race if they just had the capital to do it! (y2k or not).

-- dw (y2k@outhere.com), August 01, 1999.

Hey T:

I hate conspiracy theories, I mean, just plain old incompetence and a Cover-Yer-A** mentality explain most government intrigue.

But when the cable goes dead in No. Virginia moment before this y2k report comes on . . . Makes one wonder . . .

-- rick blaine (y2kazoo@hotmail.com), August 01, 1999.

I got one even more suspicious! While we were watching it the power went out for about three to five seconds! We call 'em brownouts. Most annoying! The coffee pot went off and my coffee was late!

Oy! The inconvenience of it all!

The segment was better than nothing, but to most it WAS nothing. 'Time for a bathroom break' type news.

-- J (jart5@bellsouth.net), August 01, 1999.

It was short, it didn't discuss cascading effects or the international situation...but it did give the impression that there are normal, sane people who are preparing for Y2K. It may help some small and not so small towns realize that they need to check to see if their 911, police and utilities are compliant.

John Koskinen said that complacency is just as much a danger as overreaction. One woman interviewed said that the government isn't telling all it knows about possible problems because it's concerned about panic. One person said that Y2K could cause a recession.

The segment also showed a man who was growing a garden and had extra cords of wood. Bartering (the man called it "trading") was mentioned. Another point that was made was that preparations, if not needed for Y2K, would also be useful for other emergencies or natural disasters that might occur.

It was too short, but I think it covered the issues pretty well in the limited amount of time. This won't change the general public's willingness to prepare, though. The 60 Minutes segment a couple of months ago on Washington D.C.'s contingency plans had little or no effect on public attitude regarding Y2K, and I don't think the brief segment this morning will either.

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), August 01, 1999.

Saw it... thanks all for the heads up.

Decent job but not very Y2K compelling. Much rather be living in Ashland, Oregon though. Even Koskinen was his usual upbeat almost no-problem because there wont be any national show-stoppers self. His concern is the local areas that arent paying attention.

Complacency is just as big a problem as over-reaction. Right, John.

Agree Linkmeister, 60 Minutes was much more hard-hitting. (And perhaps it didn't "appear" to cause much preperation reaction, but, "ya never know." Could have).

Diane

Official & complete 60 MINUTES Transcript

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 000rqn

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), August 01, 1999.

Ashland, Oregon is a town of educated but very individualistic people. Lots of "back to the landers" from the 70s are there. Its an arty, enviromentally conscious,college town on the low end of the slopes of the coastal mtns. Its in Southern oregon not far from the California border. Really a lovely place and a desirous place to live even without y2k. It also has a ski resort. But if any town were to be prepared it would be Ashland and done with class and no big fan fare. It has a Northern California climate rather than the maritime climate that starts at Eugene, Oregon. That means more snow than rain and a hell of a lot more sunshine.

Taz

-- Hannah (Hannah@Colonial America.com), August 01, 1999.

Ashland, Oregon is a town of educated but very individualistic people. Lots of "back to the landers" from the 70s are there. Its an arty, enviromentally conscious,college town on the low end of the slopes of the coastal mtns. Its in Southern oregon not far from the California border. Really a lovely place and a desirous place to live even without y2k. It also has a ski resort. But if any town were to be prepared it would be Ashland and done with class and no big fan fare. It has a Northern California climate rather than the maritime climate that starts at Eugene, Oregon. That means more snow than rain and a hell of a lot more sunshine. Shasta, not too far south of Ashland and in California is also a small college town made uo of strong individualism. They are high in elevation, sitting at the bottom of an old volcano, Mt. Shasta. Therefore, they get tons more snow. Two great places to be for the rollover and especially the recovery if its long.

Taz

-- Taz (tassie@aol.com), August 01, 1999.

I think that the CBS piece was overall a positive one. While it won't satisfy those who think that Y2K is going to be a '10', it didn't portray preparedness=survivalism=militia=Tim McVeigh. Good not to hear any nonsense about airplanes falling from the sky. While many on this forum villify Koskinen as trying to pull the wool over the public's eyes (which may be true), the fact is that he is advocating at least some level of preparation which is higher than what the average American meets.

I think the balanced low-key approach is a good one but to work it would have to be adopted by the media at large and it would have to be repeated. If it were then I think that more people would at least set aside a few days worth of canned goods and candles.

In the event of major disruptions, even this minimal level of preparation could keep the situation from during into a death spiral down to a '10'. The people capable of coming up with at least a work- around to Y2K-induced failures to the power and water systems are more likely to show up at work and do if their family has some food for that day.

-- Mikey2k (mikey2k@he.wont.eat.it), August 01, 1999.

Ashland is too cold in winter. Brrrrr. Try the temperate rain forest of NW Oregon/SW Washington. Gotta really love water ;^)

Portland has a good Y2K Community Prep Plan which finally has been approved by the City Council, but it's still behind the scenes. A lot of good *that's* doing.

Anybody here from Boulder? Is Boulder maintaining its momentum?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), August 01, 1999.

You know- there may be more people prepping than you think. Was in an ames' store the other day- looking for a couple of those big plastic storage(Rubbermaid type) bins thatwere on sale- talk about a depleted stock......I mentioned that i thought it was interesting that they were so low on inventory- and the saleswomen responded that these things have been flying out of here like you wouldn't believe! Could be coincidence- lots of people looking to store blankets or something of course.......

out here- I don't see any large bags of rice/beans/water storage drums, etc- seems to be more low key- although the local hardware store has a Y2K prep list on the counter with a fairly complete list of stuff!

-- farmer (hillsidefarm@drbs.net), August 01, 1999.

Don't know about Boulder, but my friends in the Denver area are like--"Y2K?" And the one woman is an ex-cop, her husband is still on the (Littleton) force. Another Littleton friend is prepping somewhat.

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWayne@aol.com), August 01, 1999.

Mara, the OT wild 'n wooly Andy was (is?) working near Littleton. Y'all could get together and talk ...

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), August 01, 1999.

I agree with farmer. I've posted this before, but in case some missed it: I have a family member who fills orders at the Academy (sporting goods) warehouse just outside of Houston. Within 2 weeks of the 60 Minutes broadcast, they were working mandatory overtime on Saturdays. (Never has been mandatory overtime before except in November and December.) They are getting ready to add a graveyard shift (had a "job fair" yesterday) and operate 24 hours a day. They are shipping thousands of Coleman stoves and Cast iron Dutch ovens.

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), August 01, 1999.

Wow! Thanks, Gayla, info like this, finally something definite, is good to latch onto in the murky surreal Y2K swamp of speculative info ;^)

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), August 01, 1999.

Taz - I live in the wild and free "redneck reaches" between Ashland and Mt. Shasta. I am going up to Ashland this afternoon because my bro-in-law and sister are visiting on a job interview. Both Ashland and Shasta are perfect towns for them - very liberal, affluent, yuppie, with all the intellectual and cultural trappings thereof.

Yes, we do get floods. Rain on snow in the mountains can cause devastating river floods. Pumped my basement for 36 hours straight in the '97 floods, and I am on the side of a mountain. We also have Mt. Shasta, the dormant volcanoe. She is only sleeping, not dead.

Our biggest threat is forest fire. We had a dry storm go through about a week ago and lightning started more than 40 forest fires.

Guess every place has its problems.

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), August 01, 1999.

You guys, the closet preppers are definitely out there, at least in my neck of the woods. Since we have a mail order business, we are very friendly with our UPS guy. He reported to us about the upswing in book deliveries after B & N.com went public. He has been reporting to us about the increase of ebay deliveries, and Friday, he told us that he couldn't believe how much bulk food he's delivering these days. They're out there. They just aren't talking about it!

-- CD (CDOKeefe@aol.com), August 01, 1999.

Marsh -

My son will up on the Klamath River this week on a "white-water retreat" with his youth group. From all descriptions, it sounded both beautiful and exciting. I look forward to seeing the photos from that lovely part of Cascadia.

Re Ashland: don't forget the Oregon Shakspeare Festival, one of the best classical regional theatres in the country. But I agree with Leska - it gets REALLY cold there in the winter!

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), August 01, 1999.

Links...

The City of Ashland, Oregon

http://www.ashland.or.us/

The City of Ashland, Oregon -- Understanding the Year 2000 Problem

http:// www.ashland.or.us/year2000/y2k.asp

The Rogue Valley Year 2000 (RV-Y2k) Task Force

http://www.rv-y2k.org/

Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Great experience!)

http://www.orshakes.org/

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), August 01, 1999.

Agree with you all about Ashland,

My brother has bugged out to Grant's Pass on the Rogue River, ITSHTF in January I would love to go and join him with all my stuff in tow - however it's a loooooong drive from Colorado and who's to say what might happen en route.

Seems like the Rogue River mob have their act together - bravo!

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), August 01, 1999.

I personally was VERY happy with the segment for personal reasons. I got on the phone with my sister in N. Calif who visits Ashland for the Shakespear Festival almost every year. For the first time since I am a GI (over a year) we talked about Y2K and preps due to this program, she saw it, it was very middle of the road and she felt like she could discuss merits of oil lamps, kerosene heaters, etc. Have not in all this time been able to discuss any of this with her, just cut me off, but after seeing this, she admires the town and Charles Osgood so was willing, now, if she will just follow through. She lives on the Russian River and has lived through 4 devastating floods, you would think preps would be second nature to her, but not so when it comes to Y2K, now she is listening. She is a teacher, and her school district has been having meetings about Y2K and how they must be prepared to keep the kids for up to a week if there are problems after 1/1/00! Will ask her about any new teacher seminars next time and report back.

-- Sammie (sammie0X@hotmail.com), August 02, 1999.

MAC - We had a great snowpack this year. The Klamath should be high for summer and good rafting. "My" river is one of its' tributaries. Weather has been in the high 80's-90's, high 40's-50's at nite. Should be a lovely trip for your child.

The visit to Ashland was great. Almost made me want to be an affluent yuppie again.

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), August 02, 1999.