Fear of the Year-2000 computer bug is pushing a Salt Lake business through the roof.

The fear that problems like today's huge power outage in San Francisco might cripple society just over a year from now on New Years Day, 2000, are fueling a Salt Lake business that once catered almost entirely to L.D.S. Church members. Suddenly they have a nationwide customer base, as News Specialist John Hollenhorst reports.

Office workers are filling orders faster than they would have imagined just a few months ago.

Roslyn Niebuhr is the office manager. She says, "It's incredible. Long hours, much overtime." Welcome to the suddenly busy world of a company called Preparedness Resources.

Their Perma-Pak brand of packaged food is designed to sit in a bomb shelter or storage room for years at a time, ready to eat. Since last May, sales skyrocketed from $300,000 a month to $4-million. Company president Scott Sperry says, "We've increased our employees from about eight to 50 people."

A year's supply of food for one person costs about $1,500. That's a typical sale-- a pile of boxes and buckets that will support an individual or a family for a year.

Orders are mostly coming from people who fear a computer bug will cause serious disruption, even social collapse on January First, 2000. Nieburh says, "I wouldn't say any of the people I talk to were panic-stricken. Just very urgent."

Right now, they're filling a $2-million order from a businessman who wants to ensure survival for his employees and their families. "He's buying enough food to feed 1,400 people," Sperry says.

About a third of the customers want the food delivered in plain brown wrappers. "They don't especially want their neighbors, all of their neighbors, knowing they have a supply of food down in their basement," according to Speery.

The company insists it doesn't preach disaster. And if it doesn't happen, the customers can always just eat the food.