Case in point: Any severe weather or cataclysmic event -- tornado, flood, blizzard, fire, earthquake, hurricane (excepting Katrina & New Orleans, of course).
People crawl out from the ruins of their homes, re-group...and start re-building. The necessary aspects of destroyed infrastructure are quickly replaced...mostly with private resources (e.g., powerlines, etc). Local government is usually the last to respond, but it proves more effective and efficient than anything the federal government might eventually do.
As a group, Americanss are pretty darn self-sufficient.
The big cities will have problems, though.
Exactly right.
The big cities will have problems, though.
They will have problems but even they will suprise us with their ability to pull together and get things patched up and working at some basic level.