Last-minute preps for potential disaster

Andrew Glazer

NEWPORT-MESA -- Just 32 hours before the dreaded Y2K crisis would, or

wouldn’t, happen, local grocery stores, gas stations and banks looked no

busier than normal.

Stater Brothers on Newport Boulevard was busy. But most shoppers had

their carts filled with alcohol, chips and dip, not drums of water,

batteries and First Aid kits. A Circle K on Newport Boulevard also was

quiet. And Costa Mesa’s gas stations were no busier than any other

Thursday afternoon.

“I’m not afraid at all,” said Jeff Abraham, who was shopping with his

wife Sandy at Trader Joe’s. “But then again, we have a 32,000-gallon

swimming pool we can drink from if the water goes out.”

There were a cautious few preparing for what could be anywhere from an

inconvenience to chaos when computers with the so-called “millennium bug”

perhaps crash at midnight.

Some residents were filling five-gallon jugs with gasoline to store just

in case, said Mike Sahle, assistant manager of an Arco gas station on

Newport Boulevard.

“A lot of them are asking for quarters as change,” he said. “I don’t

really know why. Maybe they think the change machines will go out and

they’ll need them to do laundry.”Others stocked up on bottled water.

In the past week, Trader Joe’s sold 104 cases of bottled water a day,

twice the normal amount, said Matt Marks, shift manager.

Some residents, including Costa Mesa resident Phill Mutt, were cued up at

ATMs to withdraw emergency money.

“I’m going to take out as much as it will let me,” he said.

Why?

“Just in case the electricity goes out,” he said. “That would be a real

pain.”

Unlike many, Mutt wasn’t taking his money out because he was afraid bank

computers would loose track of his account balances.

“I hope they do,” he said. “Then my debt would be gone, right?”