I know what I think about the whole situation, but hard to say this.....Well, we always hit. So everything we do, is with the knowledge that a flood will come. Even my coop has a place for the chickens to climb up on, when the water rises. All the houses are up on chainwalls, blocks (of varying sizes, depending on the need) or (like me) very high up on pilings. Most people are changing their roofs to metal, because they seem to be much stronger. Things that are built on the ground and need to be protected, must be sandbagged and have a few pumps, with an extra power source to access. All moveable items must be picked up, high and dry......In short, we pretty much always prepared and what extra preps we do is just to look around and pick everything up or tie it all down.
The very things that most of us talk about here on SS, regularily are probably completely foreign to a city dweller, who has lived their entire life in a huge building with 50 other families. Smart of the brother to have gotten a few supplies to use as power sources though.
It is sad. Wouldn't want anyone to think I don't sympathize, but I really think its not so much the strength of the storm, but where it hit. I guess its not really necessary to contract to build something with a hurricane in mind when no one really thinks a hurricane is coming. We saw footage of a beach home being ravaged by waves.....the thing was build flat on the ground, which absolutely never happens here. I saw pics of a subway with water washing in....where was the blockade.......and the pumps?
Alright......I probably said too much already and I'm sorry. I live in the south and I don't know about the north or their problems, but when the monster comes, I'm generally all picked up, with lots of food, water, clean clothes, toilet paper, baby wipes, fuel (of various types), batteries, meds and prayer books. I won't need to go to the store for a few weeks. A lot of these people must have been completely freaked out to see how dependent they are on outside services.