Fed emergency managers rate best, worst cities

Washington – The emergency specialists who plan for major disasters such as flood, fire, storm and enemy attacks released the 15 best and the 15 worst prepared urban areas of the nation.

Their figures expose the depressing reality of a heavily centralized population in which more than half the nation's people live in crowded conditions within 72 metropolitan areas.

Choosing an arbitrary baseline of a bioterrorism attack and a performance factor of which cities could most quickly make antibiotics available to the largest part of the population within 48 hours, a tabulation of the 15 best prepared cities and the 15 worst shows New York, New York, is the city best prepared to help its residents withstand an onslaught of germ warfare.

Albuquerque is the worst prepared.

Two Texas cities made the best and worst list of 15. They are Dallas in the lower rungs of the 15 best prepared and San Antonio in the median area of the worst.

The chosen major metropolitan areas are Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C., according to government officials.