MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) -- When Jim Spears looks at a map and thinks about a nuclear, biological or chemical attack on the Baltimore-Washington area he sees something else that rattles his nerves: Major highways leading to West Virginia, a state sheltered by mountains but largely unprepared to deal with a mass migration.
While most urban evacuation plans assume people will flee in an orderly fashion, as they do from hurricanes, ''I think we need to be prepared for an unorderly evacuation,'' says Spears, the state's director of military affairs and public safety.
The metropolitan area is home to some 6 million people, many of whom could head west _ on Interstate 70 from Washington, on I-64 from Richmond, even on U.S. 50 from Winchester, Va. Those northbound on I-81 could run into those heading south, and when congestion builds, people could start taking exits _ many lead to West Virginia.
''Whether we get 1 million, 2 million, 3 million, it doesn't matter,'' Spears says. ''When you look at a state with a population of 1.8 million as of the last census, you've got a problem.
''I don't want to create a panic situation,'' he adds. ''I just want to get people thinking.''
Spears has asked the Department of Homeland Security for $15 million to begin stockpiling supplies and to improve communications. He's traveling to Washington this week to make his case in person.
''If you look at the mountainous spine of West Virginia, the ability to communicate _ particularly with first responders _ is extremely difficult if not impossible,'' Spears says.
West Virginia has improved communications in its south and west, where chemical plants sit, ''but the whole structure needs to be in place right now,'' he says. ''We need the ability to communicate, command and control this migration.''
Spears has proposed planning meetings with Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, and other state officials have raised the issue with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But FEMA says states must develop their own plans.
''Evacuations are always a local issue,'' Don Jacks, FEMA spokesman for preparedness and national security issues, said Tuesday. ''They've always been and still are.''
In the 1980s, West Virginia had a plan to shelter evacuees from a nuclear attack on the nation's capital. It called for housing people in 10 counties, in everything from schools to limestone caves.
Today, though, officials with the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management say they are unfamiliar with the document. Acting Director Christine Morris said Tuesday she was working to locate the plan and learn whether it was ever updated.
Roy Young, deputy director of the Berkeley County Office of Emergency Services, says the Eastern Panhandle is working on a plan but needs help. The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, which handles D.C. evacuation plans, includes several Virginia and Maryland counties but stops at the state line.
''We have tried to get our foot in the door ... but we are not really there yet,'' Young says. ''Unfortunately, with West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, there's not that quad-state coordination yet.''
West Virginia will participate in a hazardous material exercise Oct. 1 in Virginia, and local authorities say that's a start.
''Every day we go by without an incident is another day of planning for us,'' says Darrell Penwell, director of Jefferson County's Office of Emergency Management.
Jefferson, across the U.S. 340 bridge over the Shenandoah River from Loudoun County, Va., is prepared to set up roadblocks at every entry point to the county, Penwell says.
But problems abound. Highways narrow quickly beyond the cities, from six or four lanes to two and, eventually, to one. That could create miles-long bottlenecks, and reaching people in the jam who need help would be a challenge.
Young and Penwell say both counties have decontamination tents, but their capabilities are limited, as are those of the community hospitals in Ranson and Martinsburg.
''If you had 20 people who were contaminated who showed up at the ER, we'd be taxed,'' Young says.
The state, which consists mainly of small towns, also relies heavily on volunteer rescue squad and firefighting crews, many of whom might be unable to get back into West Virginia from jobs elsewhere.
That, Spears says, is why more people should volunteer with local emergency planning committees.
''We need to be working with the law enforcement, firefighting and medical personnel in the community to have a system in place on how we can receive these people who might be coming,'' he says. ''People need to know there is a very important role for West Virginia in our nation's homeland security effort, and we have to be prepared.''
