Preparing for war

KIDRON, Ohio -- America's terror alert has some people buying wood stoves, drums to collect rainwater, duct tape and plastic sheeting -- just in case.\nAt Lehman's Hardware and Appliances, which specializes in non-electric household products and serves a large Amish community, sales are up among the non-Amish, much as they were during the Y2K scare and again after Sept. 11.\n"Whenever something like this happens, we get a lot of phone calls," said Glenda Lehman Ervin, whose father opened the store in 1955. "We get a lot of questions, like, 'Do you have a wood stove that will cook and heat my house?' or, 'How hard is it to dig a well?'" \nThe government raised the nation's terror alert Friday from yellow to orange, the second-highest level, because of intelligence information indicating that al Qaeda was planning attacks on the United States.\nFederal officials have recommended that Americans take basic disaster-preparation steps such as maintaining a three-day stockpile of food and water. They also recommend obtaining duct tape and plastic sheeting to seal a house in a chemical or biological attack.\nAround the country, many Americans say they do not think there is much they can do to defend themselves from terrorism. But others are taking steps to prepare themselves.\nPaul and Melissa Jackson of Tulsa, Okla., bought two 1,000-square-foot rolls of plastic sheeting and 11 rolls of duct tape Tuesday at Home Depot.\nThe couple said they have also agreed to rendezvous with about 30 family members at their vacation house near Grand Lake northeast of Tulsa if there is an attack. Their families have also secured satellite phones in case communications are disrupted by terrorists.\n"These people are crazy," said Melissa Jackson, 29. "You don't know what they're going to do. We don't think anything's going to happen, but it's better to be safe than sorry."\nPaul Jackson, 34, said he had spent less than $100 on supplies, "so it's worth the risk if nothing happens"