United States Metro areas with roughly 3 million population

[FarCenter]

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA MSA
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI MSA
San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA MSA
St. Louis, MO-IL MSA
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL MSA
Baltimore-Towson, MD MSA

Consider what it would take to supply food, water, and medical care to one of those metro areas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_United_States_Metropolitan_Statistical_Areas

[Vincardog]

1. Well St. Louis has the Missouri, the Mississippi and the Illinois to help with the water.

[FarCenter]

3. There are springs in parts of Port au Prince

Perhaps half of the dwelling units had running water.

[liberal N proud]

2. Think about the possibility one of those areas could be struck by disaster

Seattle, San Diego and St. Louis could each be devastated by earthquake

Tampa could easily be wiped out by a hurricane.

Minneapolis only has to worry about blizzards.

Baltimore, not sure what natural disasters could strike except rise of sea levels which would also strike Seattle, San Diego and Tampa.

We saw what New Orleans was like, what San Diego was struck by and 7.0 Earthquake?

[Vincardog]

4. Don't forget a Tsunami

[FarCenter]

5. Baltimore could be struck by a hurricane, although it is unlikely to be extremely powerful

If Baltimore were unlucky, a hurricane could turn inland and come up the Chesapeake.

The rescue efforts in US cities would be a little easier because there are more cranes, bulldozers, and other heavy construction equipment available. However, with widespread collapses the local people would have to dig each other out or die trapped in the rubble.

[Bobbieo]

6. How close is St. Louis to the Madrid Earthquake Fault?