Poll Finds Chicago Residents Anxious About Y2K Woes

CHICAGO — More than one-third of Chicago-area residents plan to hoard water and food and withdraw extra cash from banks as a precaution against the millennium bug, according to a poll released Saturday.

Forty percent want to stock bottled water, 34% to save food and 36% to withdraw extra cash.

The telephone poll of 515 residents was commissioned by the Chicago Tribune and conducted by research company Market Shares Corp. earlier this month.

It said a substantial portion of those polled expected no computer problems at the end of the year but wanted to prepare in the unlikely event their neighbors emptied supermarkets of canned foods.

Economists say U.S. banks were packing their vaults with spare cash in case a public worried about Y2K computer problems rushes to withdraw extra money.