Maybe you should have asked this as you were doubling down on WorldCom. . . . But in the event of an attack, probably not. Charles Norton, a portfolio manager at hedge fund GNI Capital, argues that holding gold bullion is impractical, because it's "expensive to store" and "cumbersome to transport," especially if you have to move in a hurry. A better choice, Norton suggests, would be to invest in gold-futures contracts or gold stocks, which would most likely rise if there was an attack.

The Israel Defense Forces' Homefront Command provides every household with a weapons-of-mass-destruction (WMD) protective kit containing gas masks for the entire family as well as a small store of atropine to be used in case of a nerve-gas attack. Moreover, every newly constructed house and apartment building must be designed with a separate, sealed safety room, known as an "apartment protected space" or, more lyrically, as a merhav mugan dirati in Hebrew. These bunkers have heavy steel doors and are outfitted with battery-operated radios tuned to emergency-broadcast stations. Not surprisingly, home security has become a boom industry. For those willing to spend the shekels, the options are almost limitless. There are concrete-and-steel reinforcement for the walls and ceilings and sophisticated air-purification systems to eliminate the need for wearing masks. Popular during the Gulf War was the Protective Infant Carrier, better known as the "cocoon," essentially a crib within a plastic bubble, fed with motor-driven streams of fresh air.

Not very. According to the Department of Environmental Protection, it would be almost impossible to contaminate the city's water. Because our system is so vast -- nineteen reservoirs covering a total of 1,900 square miles supply more than 1.3 billion gallons of water to the city daily -- any toxins introduced into it would be so diluted as to be harmless. "You would literally have to be up there with tractor-trailer trucks dumping stuff for days to put anything in of any concern," says DEP commissioner Chris Ward. All of the reservoirs are tested daily for pathogens, so contamination would be detected almost immediately. A more serious concern is that intake valves or dams could be sabotaged. Even before September 11, the DEP had begun fortifying potentially vulnerable spots. Since then, the agency has added $70 million to the security budget -- hiring 70 additional police officers to supplement its 140-person force, setting up infrared cameras and installing "tickler wires" to detect intruders.

:It's Indian Point, on the Hudson 40 miles north of New York City. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who's wanted the place closed for years, has said a meltdown there could release several times as much radiation as Chernobyl, contaminating up to 50 miles -- possibly including New York City -- and causing $600 billion in damage. Kennedy and other anti-nuclear activists claim the plant has five vulnerable spots, including containment domes and "spent"-fuel pools. According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, these areas were not built to withstand impact by a large commercial jet. Indian Point officials insist the plant is safe: The storage facilities are mostly underground, encased by steel-reinforced concrete walls that are six feet thick. As a test, Sandia National Laboratories sent an F-4 fighter crashing into a similar containment wall at almost 500 miles an hour. The jet disintegrated into dust after penetrating just 2.4 inches. Besides, Indian Point says that if the control room was infiltrated by terrorists and the personnel there killed, other workers could shut down the reactor in two seconds. Right after September 11, the Coast Guard offered the plant full-time security. Now it does only periodic checks, but the plant remains under military surveillance. Still, when Scott Cullen, executive director of the star Foundation (Standing for the Truth About Radiation), took a group out on a boat to test the water by the Millstone Nuclear Power Station on the Long Island Sound in Connecticut, they dug up sediment with a large rake -- without ever laying eyes on a Coast Guard interceptor. "We could've been building a rocket," he says. Governor Pataki has just ordered a review of Indian Point's security procedures.