The operators have brushed up on geography, research and have studied the public and private sector responses to the Year 2000 threat. The fear lies in what might happen if computers read the two digits 00 as the year 1900 instead of 2000. Maybe, especially if it was bought after mid 1997. For the most part, operators advocate personal preparedness. That means storing up a couple weeks' worth of food, and saving a little extra cash.
Operators help callers find numbers for their electrical companies and local hospitals.
There has been a change in the types of calls coming into the hotline over the past few months. At first people were very concerned about power problems and bank failures. As the months wear on people are now being much more specific asking about home appliances and telephones. The Y2K hotline didn't start out as a millennium program. It branched off into Y2K specific lines when the number of calls kept increasing.