I'm torn on this issue.

On the one hand ... I have been tremendously impressed by the organization of the Japanese people at the local level. Many of their towns had active tsunami warning systems. As soon as those sirens went off, they actually had volunteers going door-to-door in those towns making sure that every resident was moving to higher ground. WOW!!! It didn't happen in all their towns, but the ones that achieved it really upped their survival rate. We are nowhere near that scale of efficiency ... compared to them we are asleep on our feet. I have also been impressed with how quickly their local rescue efforts got underway after the disaster, and especially impressed by the fundamental honesty of the Japanese people (no looting!!). So their ability to respond at the local level has been an enormously strong capability for them.

I do think that the USA has some awesome people and resources. And I think that comments on this thread are right that military units, and specialist groups will try to get to diaster zones very quickly. That will help. But I also think they may be shocked and overwhelmed by what they discover once they get there. If the Pacific Northwest has an 8.5-9 earthquake in the Cascadia subduction zone, and this also causes a large tsunami that hits coastal towns & cities, it's going to be a huge mess. I can't imagine anybody up there could be prepared for that - the event is too rare in occurrence. Meanwhile, down here in L.A. I have been surprised by how complacent residents have become about maintaining basic food and water in their homes for emergencies. Preparation at the local level is bordering on abysmal. Californians are going to regret that BIG TIME. If Los Angeles gets a 7.0 local earthquake (Newport-Inglewood fault), followed a couple of years later by an 8.5 on the San Andreas ... it's going to be tough. But if the 7.0 and the 8.5 happen within a few days of each other, L.A. will look like the Apocalypse.

For me ... it boils down to what can be done in the first 72 hours after one of these disasters. That is when most of the survivors will be rescued. What I learned from the Japanese experience is this ... if you get a truly HUGE disaster, nearly all of the rescuing will be done by locals. Very few emergency services from outside your city will be able to get to you in time (esp. in first 48 hours).

As for nuclear emergencies ... my guess is that the US Gov't will handle them the same as possible nuclear terror incidents. The teams for those situations come from trained military units, plus special scientific teams. I don't think most of our first responders are ready to deal with radiation while they provide EMS (am I wrong about that?). For this reason, if the neighborhood was a nuclear mess, I would expect to see military vehicles on the streets ordering residents to pack up and leave. We should be prepared for that. And I don't expect any data on radiation levels - if you want those, measure them yourself.

other Pete