What's Next, Locusts?

OK, I get the conventional wisdom about the latest calamity to hit the D.C. area: typical Washington overreaction. Even many GovExec readers seemed to think that agencies' general response to yesterday's earthquake was a bit panicky.

As always in such situations, it's the folks from whatever part of the country where the disaster in question is relatively routine who look down their noses at the rubes in D.C. who don't seem to have any clue about what to do.

As a native Midwesterner who has had more than one occasion to chuckle at Washingtonians' reaction to a snowstorm, I understand where all of this is coming from. But I'll say this in Washington's defense: The city seems to get hit by every kind of disaster. So to those smugly looking down on D.C. today: How many of you are likely to experience a major earthquake and a hurricane in the same week?