My brother is a hazmat,heavy rescue trained fireman (Captain) in one of our 50 largest cities. He would be considered a first responder.
After hurricane Katrina and the communication breakdown I asked him about his city's communications. He explained about the radios they used and I asked him what their back up was? He jokingly responded " smoke signals?"
But then he said don't look to his city to be any prototype for forward thinking. He said it's economic, politics, but that he didn't think his city was preparded to handle a huge disaster.