Y2K Is A Big Deal, Activists Claim People Must Roll Up Their Sleeves, Spokane Attorney Says

You’ve heard about it, read about, sneered at it or braced for it.

Now it’s time to do something practical about the coming millennium, say Spokane’s leading Y2K activists.

As the one-year countdown to the year 2000 begins, residents from all walks of life are banding together to persuade average households to prepare for a possible failure of computer systems, utilities and machines.

With little fanfare, activists’ efforts in Spokane are moving beyond splashy trade shows and mayoral breakfasts into apartment complexes, places of worship, living rooms and other sites where people may congregate to share ideas about preparing for a disaster.

“We’ve been talking about this long enough,” Spokane attorney Gregory Johnson told 50 community leaders at a recent gathering of Y2K organizers. “We must roll up our sleeves and get to work. This is really a labor issue.”

Johnson and others are proposing media campaigns, Block Watch seminars, distribution of survival checklists in monthly utility bills and formation of church and neighborhood groups to gear up for Y2K. Many of these efforts will begin to take shape this month as growing numbers of organizers rush to draw residents into the labor pool.

“A lot of people are laughing at those making a big deal about (Y2K). That will change,” says Carole Morrisen, resource coordinator for the City-County Emergency Management office.

Y2K suffers from large-scale disbelief that computer malfunctions could disrupt America’s lifestyle. While some warn that computer failures may cause power to go dead, grocery deliveries to be waylaid, airplanes to collide and missiles to fire, many others expect only temporary inconveniences such as a late tax refund or confused VCR.

The debate centers on whether businesses and government agencies have enough time, money and expertise to replace or reprogram older computer software and machines that read calendar dates as two-digit numbers. When the Year 2000 hits, these programs may interpret the date as “00,” or the year 1900, and crash.

President Clinton last week proclaimed that the federal computers that deliver Social Security checks were fixed and ready for the year 2000. That one fix took the agency nine years to complete.

Jeff Brune, Y2K coordinator for Avista Utilities, formerly Washington Water Power Co., says the Spokane-based utility is “cautiously optimistic” that the city will not go dark in the year 2000. West Coast power systems are not connected to the Eastern seaboard, he said, dismissing a myth that there is an interconnected, national power grid that could go dead in a domino of blackouts.

But many people, after suffering through the catastrophic 1996 ice storm - when 100,000 homes lost power and heat in subfreezing weather - are not banking on assurances from the power company.

The Red Cross is developing a comprehensive list of shelters equipped with generators to protect residents from the cold. The Spokane Police Department has restricted vacation and leaves in December 1999 and January 2000 to maximize public assistance and protection.

The Spokane-based Health Improvement Partnership has become a clearinghouse for dozens of organizers, connecting unusual Y2K bedfellows such as Unitarians and Mormons, mental health professionals and the U.S. Air Force.

“Common sense preparedness and neighborhood cooperation could be an antidote to irresponsible behavior,” says Dan Baumgarten, executive director of the partnership. He worries that people may begin panic-buying if they don’t feel that someone is solving the computer glitch.

Morrisen, with emergency management, says it makes sense for residents to prepare for the Year 2000 even if nothing bad happens.

“You don’t wait until a disaster occurs to start preparing for it,” she says. “We’re an office of three people; we can’t take care of everybody.

“But if people will prepare in advance, what’s the worst thing that could happen? You could get to know your neighbors. You could become more self-sufficient. What’s wrong with that?”

Vern Page, a Shadle Park High School teacher and former Air Force survivalist trainer, has done just that. He helped organize a Y2K meeting in his north Spokane neighborhood that yielded surprising fruit.

Neighbors responded positively to a simple emergency checklist that shows how much water, food and energy a family or individual needs to survive. Another list showed how to buy enough food with $100 to last several weeks.

Several professionals in Page’s neighborhood - including a doctor, police officer and a electrician - volunteered as contacts in an emergency. A widow and single mother, who may be vulnerable during an emergency, were identified.

“If we all know each other, we can help each other,” Page says.

Checklists and other preparedness information is available through HIP, emergency management, World Wide Web sites and other sources. The Utne Reader, a national digest of alternative ideas, this week began distributing a “Y2K Citizen’s Action Guide” to its 260,000 subscribers and anyone else willing to pay $4.95. The guide includes step-by-step directions for organizing a Y2K neighborhood meeting and preparing a household for a disaster.

“You can’t overreact to something like this,” Morrisen says.

This sidebar appeared with the story: WHAT’S AHEAD The following Y2K events are open to the public. Most are free. Call organizers to confirm times, locations and cost. Comp USA systems compliance seminar held at noon every Monday and Wednesday at 808 N. Ruby. For reservations, call Shane Sorre at 323-3302. “Joseph Project” meets to discuss emergency health needs at 7 p.m. on Jan. 10 at the First Presbyterian Church, 318 S. Cedar St. Call Laverne Meekhof at 448-5144. Spokane attorney Bruce Gore speaks at 7 p.m. on Jan. 11 at the Tri-County Christian Center, S. 710 Colville, Deer Park. Call Brian Noble at 276-2260. “Y2K Neighborhood” meets at 7 p.m. on Jan. 12 at the West Central Community Center, 1603 N. Belt. Call Karen Salmon-Rickel at the Health Improvement Partnership at 742-3646. Panel of experts discuss sustainable local food systems at 6 p.m. on Jan. 14 at the WSU Cooperative Extension office, N. 222 Havana. Call Kay Serene at 443-0271. Futurist Robert Theobald and others speak at a Y2K Conference, 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. on Jan. 16 at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 4340 Fort George Wright Drive. Call Melissa Ahern at 358-7982. City-County Emergency Management meets with businesses at 9:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. on Jan. 21 at Airway Heights Fire Station, 929 S. Garfield Road. Call Carole Morrisen at 477-7608. Theobald leads interactive videoconference on “resilient communities” at 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on Jan. 22 at WSU Cooperative Extension, N. 222 Havana. Call Marilyn Trail at 477-2048, ext. 105. Meeting of Y2K organizers at 7:30 a.m. on Jan. 22 in Room 265 of the Deaconess Health and Education Center. Call Karen SalmonRickel at 742-3646. Red Cross officials speak at 7 p.m. on Jan. 25 at the Tri-County Christian Center, S. 710 Colville, Deer Park. Call Brian Noble at 276-2260. Bob Francis of N.B.S. Solutions speaks at 7:30 a.m. on Jan. 28 at the Spokane Regional Business Center, 801 W. Riverside. Call the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce at 624-1393. Y2K Expo opens Jan. 30-31 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle. Call 487-1667.