Just like with the reporting on the flu currently(read the WSJ reporters experience)...and the rest of the reporting on most every crisis we currently face.....the reporting on Y2K back then was

Totally obscene and unrealistic.

I was there. I worked two years on mainframe problems during Y2K.

The blood was on the floor, the systems were in deep trouble and many worked very very long and tiring hours over many months and years to correct the major problems.

The one I remember most clearly was when operations was unable to mount a scratch tape to store data. The experiation dates would not allow it and each tape mounted prompty dismounted and could not be used.
When they called me they said " we have exhausted our supply of scratch tapes and we are stopped and can do nothing"....the problem of course was due to the date. It was a flaw that had been implanted many many years ago by the mainframe operating system.

This same customer I asked this "you have a tape library of archived data going back since this company was formed and all those dates are in a two character field and are of course imbedded in a serial data fashion. Just how do you intend to go back and correct all that huge amount of data that is now going to cause data errors in the future?"

The response was 'we will do nothing'...and of course they didn't as well as no other corps did..The ONlY one that did was Social Security. They really replaced all the 2 date fields with actual updated 4 date fields....or so I was told and remembered and think that was true'.....

So yes a real emergency was averted yet I personally knew and worked at one small company who died on Y2K. The code was not altered and when it was too late the system had lost support from the manufacturer..IBM....so they shutdown. One of the execs went to prison over stealing. He was the one over the data center and his lack of attention forced the issue. This company was a major employer in a small county and employed about 100-150 employees. Hurt the area very severely when it went bellyup.

Another corp I worked at was a major electrical utility. They took that opportunity to downsize all their electrical engineers. Leaving as I heard just one. They were later taken over by another firm.

It was real even though the American people were told different.

Exactly as it is now. Exactly.

Airdale