In almost any disaster situation I would try to shelter in place. If I was away from home I would try to stay put until things settled down before I tryed to make it home - if I thought my home or my stuff would still be there. If there was a man made disaster like a nuclear plant meltdown or a terrorist attack ; biological or nuclear ; and the weather pattern was blowing a cloud of crap my way , I might consider bugging out . It would depend on how far away the thing happened and if I thought there was time to get through the traffic jambs. If I did bug out , where I would go depends on which direction the stuff was coming from. If it was south or west of me I'd head up to Maine , I could get pretty far north on a tank of gas. Depending on the situation I might try to make it to Canada. If something happened to the north I would head down the east coast. In either case , if I stayed home or bugged out , I would try to keep a low profile and not trust anyone. I think if things got bad even a freind or neighbor you thought you could trust would turn on you to save his own skin.