The best response to any disaster is to evaluate it individually, and to have a plan for each.

I really tend to wonder about the thought processes of all the people who think evacuation is the answer to everything. The people who advocate that seem to have a serious case of tunnel vision. I suspect they've watched the Rambo and Mad Max movies too many times.

Western WA has over 5 million people.
Portland metro area has over 2 million people.
SoCal metro area has over 22 million people.

Just where are all these people supposed to go? Moving the population of western WA and Portland into the Cascades just sounds like an incredibly bad idea. And SoCal, where to go? Into the desert???

Most people can't carry a tremendous amount of anything in their vehicles, and most people don't even store much food or water. If everyone runs to the mountains and picks a spot on semi-level ground, how long can they eat before what they brought runs out? Hunting? Don't make me laugh! All the animals would be dead and rotting in a week or two.

Water? If it's raining, they can catch it, if they have something to catch it with and something to put it in. If it been snowing, they've got water, but also a lot of other problems. Rivers and steams with lots of people camped nearby? Do they know how to spell POLLUTION? Sick people with diarrhea all over the place, cool! Oh, you're in SoCal? Sorry, you'll just die of dehydration in a few days.

Did everyone start with a full tank of gas? No, so many couldn't even get to where they were hoping to get, and have to park alongside the road with a lot of other people.

Shelter? Cold wind, blowing rain or snow, searing heat and blowing sand. One car, two adults and three kids? Kinda cramped, huh? Tempers getting a little short?

Forgot to bring matches? Oh-oh!

Your two teenage boys decided to engage in some horseplay and one now has a broken arm? That's too bad!

Everyone is searching the sky for signs of some double-rotor Chinook helicopters to deliver emergency supplies? We are counting on them! What do you mean they're not coming?

Meanwhile, my dog and I are trotting around the vacant neighborhood with the red Radio Flyer wagon collecting all kinds of useful stuff! Oh, Judy stayed, too! She's out with her wheelbarrow and we're trading stuff. Bill left a whole pile of dry, split firewood in his shed, must be about four cords. Here's all Doug's hand tools! It looks like Linda took a lot of food, but since she's Mormon, there's LOTS more!

Of course, this is assuming that the disaster wasn't an earthquake, because then, no one would be going anywhere due to the collapsed overpasses, and trees, poles, wires, and shattered buildings littering every single road and street.

I was just noticing the other day as I sat in traffic on the Alaskan Way Viaduct (what's left of it): if we only have 10-20 minutes to get to high ground after a mega-quake, a lot of people are going to die. The buildings are fairly tall (at least six stories), and they're all going to be in the narrow streets, blocking access to the nearest high ground.

Sue