Y2K is coming. Various reports indicate that from 18% to perhaps 30% of Americans are getting prepared. They are being told to prepare as they would for a hurricane, earthquake, tornado, etc. But it could be much, much worse. A toxic cloud from a meltdown is more like World War One's Mustard Gas. An accidental World War is like World War Two's awful atomic weapons. And World War Three's Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) could destroy all communications (also from an accidental launch). All this could greet us in the new year, all at once. Or we can become prepared.
What can you do?
First, WRITE YOUR CONGRESSPEOPLE! Tell them you want America to protect itself properly! Then, take the following MINIMUM precautions:
Stock up on water. You will need a gallon a day per person, minimum. Unrinsed bleach bottles should be filled and dated on the outside, and placed all around the house. Bottled water purchased now has dates well past Y2K. 100 gallons per person is the absolute minimum you should try to have. Remember, many of your friends won't do this, and you will probably want to share your precious supplies. Look at your neighbor's young son or daughter and ask yourself if you could deny that person lifegiving water just because their parents did not properly prepare. Start buying water NOW, because it takes a lot of work to put away a couple of hundred gallons of water. If you own property, bury some water tanks.
Stock up on food. A few months' supply would not hurt. Try to purchase foods you don't need to cook. Try to purchase foods you like to eat anyway. If everything works out, you can give it to charity or eat it in 2000.
Stock up on medical supplies and vitamins. Do these things NOW, not later! The average grocery store has a THREE DAY supply of food. November might be dicey, December WILL be ugly. No matter what anyone says now, come December, people everywhere WILL be preparing for Y2K as though it might be the mother of all disasters (which it might). So YOU should prepare TODAY instead. Cassini arrives in just over two weeks, but Y2K awaits not all that long thereafter. If you take prescription medication, get as much as you can and still use it by the time the expiration dates come up. Those dates are very conservative: Consider getting even more medications if your life (or happiness) depends on it.
Purchase potassium iodide tablets -- enough for at least a month for your whole family. These may become VERY hard to acquire so DO THIS NOW.
Get cash. Small bills. If all you have is 100's, you'll end up paying 100's for things that other people are paying 20's for -- like loaves of bread.
Gas up your car if you have one. Pump up your bicycle tires, have numerous extra tires and tubes and patch kits on hand Buy a bike trailer and stock it with a week's worth of essentials (mostly water, and food). Know your exit routes. If you live near a nuclear power plant (like YH&OS), or in any major metropolis, be packed and ready to leave on New Year's Eve. If you must evacuate, watch out for thugs and drunks. If you can be somewhere far away from other people for Y2K, do so. The worst thing that will happen is you'll have a quiet vacation.
Parents: Keep Your Children Home. Especially the older ones -- the ones home from college, not to mention the ones home from jail.
Make Y2K a family day. Make preparing for it a family project.
Let your friends and neighbors know you are preparing, and try to encourage them to do so as well. But you may want to be discreet about some of the particulars, like how many guns or how much ammo you're stocking -- if any -- or how much cash, or where the cash is. But the greater good WILL be served if everyone talks about it. But note: Criminals WILL be expecting most houses to be feasts for their sticky fingers this year! So put in a good alarm system.
Buy vacuum food packing equipment NOW, for example, so different family members and neighbors can borrow it and so you can learn how to use it to store grains, cereals, and so forth.
Buy a wind-up shortwave radio. Only a shortwave radio will bring you unedited news from around the world. Have solar-powered or wind-up equipment for lighting, pumping, cooking, etc.
Stock up on mason jars -- start canning vegetables, jams, jellies, etc. Choose organic, vegetarian foods.
Document all your financial statements. Not that money will be worth anything after Y2K, but it might -- you never know.
Back up all your data onto multiple CD-ROMs. CD-ROMs can survive an EMP (although there will be nothing to play them on for a while).
Unplug your computers and radios and everything else, and place them in metal containers -- preferably well grounded -- such as filing cabinets (of course, don't let any part of the equipment touch the surrounding container with any conducting material!)
Have some champagne. If it makes you feel like you're One with the Universe, turn on the Television and watch the ball drop and the revelers party. Hug and kiss everyone around you, and hope everything keeps working.
Go to bed.
Get up to the first day of the new millennium. Destroy your television set. Get your computers and radios out of their EMP shields and "plug and pray".
If all goes well, your biggest problem will be the same as your biggest problem last New Year's: Learning to write the new date without having to think about it. You won't have to buy food (or water) for months and by destroying your television, you will actually be able to get out and experience YOUR new millennium, instead of one programmed for you by others!
But what if all doesn't go well? The government fears civil unrest. I do too. But I fear the government even more. I fear they will do nothing, because they ARE doing nothing!
Here are the Government contact points for Y2K questions and comments: Contact them TODAY and tell them you don't want any meltdowns or any accidental nuclear wars! Tell them that purposeful nuclear wars are not to your liking either!
year2000@y2k.senate.gov
Fax: (202) 228-0517
(202) 224-5224
Senators Chris Dodd and Bob Bennett
Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem
SD-B40 U.S. Senate
Washington DC 20510
Mr. John Koskinen
Chair, President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion
Room 216, OEOB, White House
Washington DC 20502
Senator Gordon Smith
Y2K Senate Committee
359 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Here are some Y2K web sites we recommend you visit:
http://www.enviroweb.org/nukenet/
http://www.basicint.org/y2krept.htm
http://www.noradiation.org/main.htm
http://www.kreative.net/carolmoore/4-reasons-nuke-war.html
Call this number to order public documents about any nuclear plants near you:
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Public Documents Librarian and Fax Back Service:
(800) 397-4209
Ask them for the FREE DOCKET PRINTOUT of available documents on the following:
Violations, spills, pump failures, valve failures, accidents, leaks, contaminations, worker contaminations, releases, pipe failures, cooling pond leaks, motor failures, indicator failures, software programming anomalies, construction problems, ongoing problems, efficiency drops, outages, LERs (Licensed Event Reports), and NOUs (Notice of Unusual Events). If you live in or near Georgia, Pamela Blockey-O'Brien suggests you might want to ask specifically for two NRC Special Team Inspection Reports, 50-321/99-10 and 50-366/99-10. Get not just the Executive Summary, but the Appendix too, which has the timeline of events.
When we sent our own Y2K statement to year2000@y2k.senate.gov we included this cover letter:
To Whom it may Concern:
Please read the following and pass it on, and please don't be like so many at the top level of our Government are, who pretend that THE PEOPLE of America don't know -- don't even have a RIGHT to know -- the real score about the dangers we face.
Many of us DO know and are FED UP, and want the Government to at least know that we died -- if we must die, from YOUR (the Government's) inaction -- with our eyes wide open. We knew, and were rendered helpless by the Government -- your -- inaction. Please know that in your heart by reading this, and in your mind by reading what comes next (below).
Thank you,
Russell Hoffman
A concerned citizen
The above statement was followed by the article published at the following URL:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/y2k/phase1.htm
Read it and weep for our planet, which is dying because people go around denying.
Home page of our Y2K Alert pages:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/y2k/index.htm
Home page of our STOP CASSINI movement:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/cassini.htm
Published by Russell D. Hoffman electronically.
Written in U.S.A.
Please distribute this document EVERYWHERE!
rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com