EDITORIAL : 86 THE FEARS ABOUT 9/9/99; THE COMPUTER SCARE THAT WASN'T GIVES US HOPE THAT WE'LL MAKE IT THROUGH THE Y2K WITCHING HOUR UNSCATHED.

THE paranoia of 9999 just wasn't all that it was hyped up to be.

Billboards emblazoned with the four 9s warned of impending doom. Computer junkies blanketed the Internet with tales of mass electronic failure.

The digits, they contended, would shut down vital computer programs that ended in an expiration code of 9999 on Sept. 9, 1999.

The news across the globe was that nothing happened. There was no repeat of the Asian financial crisis. Planes didn't fall from the sky.

In Los Angeles, the 911 system worked. Television and radio broadcasts aired uninterrupted as scheduled. Traffic was still bad on the freeways, and the minisubway in and around downtown worked without a hitch.

Computer systems that will be replaced because they are not Y2K compliant worked seamlessly.

The smooth transition into the great unknown was much like Chuck Yeager's flight through the sound barrier. Nothing froze up, nothing crashed, no fears were realized.

Now we head unabated toward the millennium, and we wonder if that magical witching hour, which comes for most of us just once in a lifetime, will flame out like 9999.

Still, preparing for the worst - a complete meltdown of computer systems throughout the world - is necessary. But we have been reassured by bankers, who have asked ministers to ask their congregations not to pull all their cash from the bank, and the government, whom we intrinsically regard with suspicion.

But the letdown of the 9999 hype is giving us hope that all will be well on Jan. 1, 2000, not because it's a baseless plot dreamed up by computer companies and Internet conspiracy theorists, but because we're prepared for whatever comes our way.