Keep extra blankets and coats on hand. That's the Y2K advice of the American Red Cross. It's a message that's milder by a long shot than that of Internet alarmists who predict freezing and starving citizens as well as nuclear weapons in the sky come Jan. 1. But the recommendation that people prepare for days-long power outages goes further than some professionals at work on the Y2K problem see as necessary, or even wise. It's the Y2K mania that's going to give us the problem, not Y2K itself.
Panic is what worries emergency management officials in Western Massachusetts.
Fire chiefs, for example, don't want people stockpiling gasoline. People hoarding gas or food will prompt shortages, added DeCaprio. K committees made up of professionals and citizens. Many small town public safety managers are looking forward to a March 18 meeting in West Springfield, where they will hear what the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency expects and what it recommends. Y2K is the name given to the problems some computer systems are going to have when their internal date turns to 2000.