Pete,
I totally agree with you in the case of a bio/chem terror attack I wouldn't take game in the affected area! Of course that would not make any sense.

There are other disaster scenarios that might occur to a resident of the Washington DC area and I was thinking of overall preparedness. In the case of infrastructure attack or storm, flood or fire or explosive attack that disrupts basic services and society with effect lasting more than a week (think hurricane andrew not WMD) some food gathering options other than buglarizing the rubble of the local Kroger's or A&P might be helpful since you might not be the first to get there. In my (humble?) opinion the possibilities of a Bio / Chem attach that disrupts anything larger than a neighborhood is low even in target areas such as Washington DC. A serious Bio / Chem attack has already been launched on Washington DC and it was only effective in shutting down a few buildings and no-one was killed not even Sen. Dashle who was targeted personally. I don't mean to belittle the risk but put it into perspective. Blackouts, storms, fires and floods are much more likely to happen than any form of terrorist attack. To properly prepare you need to prepare for the scenarios that are most likely first and those that are less likely later and those that are least likely last if ever. No - one will deny the possiblity that a killer asteroid may hit the earth or that in-fact one will sooner or later in the geological time frame. OTOH, few seriously prepare for this eventuality at a personal level - I would think that to prepare for the terrorist bio-chem attack when you haven't taken care of the extended infrastructure disruption scenarios first is somewhat out of order. like worring about a helmet for walking in an urban environment because you might be hit by a motorist but not thinking to wear your own seatbelt while driving. If one is comfortable taking the risk to drive without a seatbelt (not suggesting anyone here is just using an example) then that same person should not rationally be worried about wearing a helmet while walking in a busy downtown. Or to bring it home. If you are comfortable living in Washington DC without any preparations for flood (DC is a landfill in a swamp) then you should be comfortable ignoring the risk to yourself of a bio / chem attack.


Let's not forget another reason for the threat level to be raised here in the US - the possibility that by being more aware of odd and threatening happenings in our neighborhood we might notice and report something that our overwhelmed police and inteligence forces might not otherwise notice. After all, there are certainly more citizens than police (so-far).