RELATED VIDEO CNN's Kate Snow reports on ways you can be Y2K prepared Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K

March 22, 1999
Web posted at: 10:00 p.m. EST (0300 GMT)

(CNN) -- If you knew a hurricane was coming, or a severe winter storm, what would you do to prepare?

The Federal Emergency Management Agency recommends that you get ready for any possible Y2K-related disruptions in the same way.

That means check your flashlight for batteries, buy some canned food and a few days worth of bottled water. Also make sure your car has at least one half of a tank of gasoline.

FEMA says it will be ready for the worst but it expects only isolated and local problems.

"Now I want to be very clear about one thing. The sky is not falling," says Mike Walker, FEMA Deputy Director. "Y2K does not have to become a major disaster in America."

For FEMA and other agencies like The Red Cross, the mission leading up to 2000 is two-fold; they not only have to make sure their computers are Y2K compliant, but they also must develop contingency plans in case other organizations aren't as ready as they should be.

The Red Cross plans to have emergency teams on hand the night of December 31. The relief organization has warehouses all over the country stocked full of disaster supplies. The Red Cross says it is always prepared to handle an emergency situation and they are preparing to support any kind of mass care requirements that may arise from Y2K-driven events.

But The Red Cross isn't the only agency that will have members on call when the clock ticks over to January 1.

Brian Carney of the Government Emergency Telecommunications Service says he expects things to be pretty quiet. "We're gonna spend our New Year's Eve in the operations center ... not that we expect anything significant. I anticipate I'll be playing cards."

Making sure every 911 dispatch center and every fire and police station in the country is ready for Y2K is too large of a task for any one agency. Planning for the advent of the new millennium on the state, county and local must depend on individual communities.

The National Guard says its computers will be Y2K compliant before January 1, but it's up to units in each state to develop contingency plans tailored for their area.

Emergency officials will be watching closely as countries along the International Dateline bring in the New Year. What happens in major cities on the western Pacific Rim could provide an early indication of what's to come for the United States.