I have been looking to relocate to the country to a Christian community that is very self sufficient and the desire to go immediately has been keen. I have been warning my family of the need to do this for several years. I knew that there was going to be a catastrophe to necessitate it and now I see what it is and have a time-table. My teen-age children have been bucking me and think I am crazy for wanting to go live on this farm. I have a 20 year old that lives about 5 hours away. No one would believe me if I told them how bad y2k will be. What will be the likelihood that they will be able to travel after they realize something is terribly wrong. Is there a window of time for one to travel? I would like to go prepare for my family...or hogtie them and go immediately.

-- Catherine Sayle (catsayle@livenet.net), June 18, 1998

Answers

Catherine...I would impress upon them the impending problems by giving them occurrences and upcoming dates to look for signs of what you are telling them is true. Many of the forecasters on this issue are saying the spring or summer of 1999 is when widespread panic will begin. There will be shortages of food, supplies, perhaps gasoline, etc. but the electricity won't go out just yet. My best to you.

1. 7/1/98; First day of a biennial fiscal year for 4 of the 50 states. Watch for media coverage of this. This date is also the first day of fiscal 1999 for 46 of the 50 states.(See number 6 for explanation. These states may start to see the ramifications of the 99 coding problem). 2. 10/1/98; This is the first day of fiscal 1999 for the Federal Government. 3. 1/1/99; This date may present quite a few problems with data and software that work on yearly schedules. 4. 7/1/99; This is the first day of fiscal 2000 for 46 of the 50 states. 5. 8/22/99; The Global Positioning System (GPS) uses a 32 bit memory system for it's weeks calculations. This means that every 1042 weeks the system resets to Zero. It's no big deal, they knew about it when they set it up, it's supposed to work this way. However, GPS receivers on the ground will be compromised unless replaced in time. 6. 9/9/99; The date in itself means nothing Y2K wise, but is a code often written to denote "infinity", or to "implement a test for shut down", or "delete all files", and, quite frankly, a host of other commands that will cause all sorts of disruptions. 7. 10/1/99; The Federal Government beginning of fiscal 2000.

-- Bingo (habatat@rof.net), June 21, 1998.

Good question. I guess most of us believe there will be a window of time. For me the question is, "Will those who don't see a problem in Y2K recognize and respond to the signs? In time to 'get out' before it's too late? Or, will they continue to believe that things will be fixed tomorrow, or that a silver bullet will appear, or that their jobs and income and life-style are more important than their lives?"

I have family that will be returning to the US from overseas in October, 1999. They won't have a place to live when they return, and they haven't had time to make any preparations. I can only pray that they have time to get out of the city on their return. They have places set at my table.

Rocky

-- Rocky Knolls (rknolls@hotmail.com), June 26, 1998.