I had lunch a couple months ago with a retired naval commander and he mentioned what a hellhole cities like Chicago and NY would be in a disaster.
I think smaller cities might even be worse. In larger cities you might have infrastructure to control the feral hordes. If you are wealthy or connected, you may be able to retreat to a safe zone that is protected by the sizable police forces in those types of large cities. There are areas in the big cities where authorities are currently able to maintain control.
In cities like Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Akron, Dayton, Toledo, Detroit, Pittsburgh, etc….I think it would be far worse. The local authorities will lose total control immediately. There are currently no areas of cities like this that have not already been taken over by 3rd worlders.
The hordes will travel miles out into the suburbs to loot.
You will want to be a minimum of 20 miles outside any “urban” area or you will lose all of your preps within weeks of the event.