STORY:
Cockroach Is New Zealand's Millennium Bug

The nearly indestructible bug is part of governmental warning on Y2k

New Zealanders have been told to prepare for the loss of three-days of essential services in light of possible computer Y2K related problems. As part of a public relations push to get the word out, the government is using an unlikely mascot that is often despised - the cockroach.

The Y2K Readiness Commission wants people to be prepared for the loss of water and power and is recommending storing food, water, medicine, lanterns, candles and toilet equipment for three days upwards to three months.

Commission chairman Basil Logan says New Zealand is well prepared for millennium bug problems but there were no guarantees normal services would not be interrupted.

In an interesting twist, the cockroach has become the "millennium bug" for New Zealand. The commission has launched a nationwide public awareness campaign using "Ken", an animated cockroach, representing the animal world's greatest survivor, that has been around more than 300 million years.

A cockroach was chosen as the commission's mascot because the bugs were "the ultimate survivors," Logan says in news accounts. Press materials reportedly point out that the cockroach can live without food or water for two weeks, can survive a nuclear disaster and live at the North and South Poles.

New Zealand is just 185 miles west of the International Dateline at its closest point. It will be among the first nations to greet the first day of the year 2000 and may give hours' warning to other parts of the world as to what the real effects of Y2K will be.

DATE: 07/22/99

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