martinfocazio - You make a good point. Rescue, relief and emergency services are about saving people. Which often means that the greatest quantity of external resources will be coming to the greatest concentration of people first. Also, because mitigation of damage is a matter of allocation of effort and resources, those places which have money, population and resources are more likely to have appropriate resources on hand.

If the situation is moderately sized, say a small dirty bomb, NYC may not be a bad place to be. They have multiple response teams with specialized training and equipment that smaller towns can't afford. They have top-rated trauma centers and some of the best specialized response units in the world.

If you get slimed in NYC there is a pretty good chance someone who knows how to handle it and the resources to do it right will be there for you. If you get slimed in Lower Podunk it takes a half-hour for the local volunteer FD to assemble. They will have little or no specialized equipment and their knowledge base will consist of a guy sounding out the big words from the wrong page in the manual. (I exaggerate a bit to make the point crystal clear. And to have some fun.) On the positive side if what you fear most is an attack by people bent on hurting the most people in a symbolic setting it is far less likely to happen in Tiny Town.

I like small town and rural life but you have to accept the limitations of the situation. Your more on your own. Response, if there is any, is going to take time getting there. Partly because it takes longer to organize and because it may be heading to the population centers. And, assuming they roll your way, if you want them to use any specialized knowledge or equipment you better bring it with you.

In example: In one rural county the fire department was using plain water to try to maintain protection on multiple homes during a wildfire. The few houses that got the gel that provided better protection only got it because a homeowner had heard about it and purchased it, and the equipment used to apply it, on his own.