You very well might.
You know the way things work: when there is a disaster or need, people rush like crazy to get something.
Then, a week after it’s done, they rush like crazy to forget about it and watch American Idol.
Even after this incident, I would bet that one month from now only ten percent of Americans have any KI or way of dealing with it.
And I would win that bet. Ten percent might even be a huge overestimate!
People who live in the plume exposure pathway (i.e. within 10 miles) of an operating nuclear plant are wise to keep a small stock of KI on hand. Their county or state emergency management agency probably supplies it.
People who live on the left coast of the US and who are panicking about a reactor (or three or four) that is in trouble thousands of miles away across a vast ocean need a hobby. Could detectable amounts of radiation reach that far? Maybe. But there is a big difference between detectable and dangerous.
People on Long Island who are scrambling to find KI tablets because they are afraid of what’s happening in Japan are just victims of public school educations.
Gaseous radionuclides, especially radioiodine could possibly cross the oceans. Along the way, they’d be decaying and washing out. Heavy stuff like Sr-90 and Cs-137, I just don’t see that making it across in any quantity of concern.
Now, were I immediately downwind of that plant, I’d be bugging out. But that’s the difference between 50 miles and two or ten thousand miles.