Y2K Hysteria: Our local paper

Greg Nowell GN842 at CNSVAX.Albany.Edu
Wed Feb 17 15:44:05 PST 1999


Demand electrifies generator sales

Clifton Park -- Manufacturers struggle to keep up with orders

prompted by fears of "bug''-related blackouts

ALAN WECHSLER

Staff writer

New York's power companies say they expect few, if any,

blackouts because of Y2K.

But many New Yorkers aren't buying it.

They are, however, buying generators to supply backup power in the

event things don't work as well as officials say.

Sales of power generators and other equipment New York state are

skyrocketing. Manufacturers are churning out popular models at

record rates, and customers are waiting up to six months for some

models.

"It just makes sense to be prepared,'' said David Triller of Clifton

Park, who recently bought one. "All I keep reading is nobody really

knows what's going to happen. That's kind of scary.''

Triller waited three months to get a 5,000-watt Honda for his house.

He also ordered two more -- one for a friend, and one for his store,

The Only Guitar Shop, to keep the fragile wooden instruments from

freezing on the day the power dies.

For many who worry about the Y2K "bug'' -- the inability of some

computers to comprehend the year 2000, causing programs to crash

or spew faulty information -- the biggest concern is that the electricity

will go out for a long time.

Power companies say they're well aware of the problem and expect

to be Y2K-compliant six months before the end of the year. Many

experts who have been following the Y2K problem say they expect,

at the worst, temporary outages in a few places that won't last more

than a couple of days.

Y2K isn't the only reason to buy a generator. Headlines about

natural disasters during the last two years -- hurricanes in the

southern United States and Central America to landslides in

California and floods in the Midwest -- get people worried.

Bad news like that means good business for people like Joe Farina,

manager of Albany Honda.

"There's been a tremendous increase,'' he said. "It's like buying fire

insurance on your house.''

Honda, one of the bigger generator sellers in this country, has

doubled its sales in the past year, according to a Jan. 1 letter sent out

to its dealers. The company has given up producing a wide selection,

concentrating instead on the more popular models in an effort to

produce more. And despite that, there's still a months-long waiting

list.

"Larger generators, they're almost impossible to come by,'' said Greg

Daly of True Value in Menands. "We can order them, but it's going

to take forever to get them in.''

Y2K has been an especially powerful sales incentive because unlike

most natural disasters, we know when this one is coming. If only

hurricanes and earthquakes could be scheduled so conveniently in

advance.

Wood-burning stoves are also popular for people getting ready for a

Y2K disaster. Nancy Koval of Woodburning Warehouse

Distributors in Watervliet estimated her sales increased at least 30

percent this year.

"I've got people who say we'll be without power for about two

months,'' she said.

"And most of the people,'' she added with a hush, "are in the

computer field.''

Other stores also are looking at Y2K. Price Chopper Supermarkets

has appointed its own Y2K expert to see if their markets should plan

to stock up on such staples as flour or diapers in the coming months.

Perhaps it will be all for naught. At a recent New York Assembly

committee hearing, officials from power companies around the state

testified their computers would be Y2K-compliant by the end of

June. Other power experts say they believe the worst problem that

will occur the first week of January is a few spotty outages that will

not take long to repair.

But others, noting how much of modern society comes to a stop

when the electricity goes off, say taking a few precautions hurts no

one. Even if Y2K turns out be nothing but hype, they say, there's

always nature's fury to contend with.

That was Jerry Miller's thought when he decided to spend $4,700 on

an 8.5-kilowatt Kohler generator for his Greene County house.

Miller runs the machine every couple of weeks just to keep it in

proper tune. And that has presented a different problem -- noise.

Generators can make leaf blowers sound soothing by comparison.

Now, Miller is looking for a muffler.

"It really annoys the neighbors,'' he said.

-- Gregory P. Nowell Associate Professor Department of Political Science, Milne 100 State University of New York 135 Western Ave. Albany, New York 12222

Fax 518-442-5298



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