Well, I'll admit the north doesn't normally have all kinds of hurricanes hit us (and certainly not like in the gulf), but I'm willing to bet a 12 pack of anyone's favorite drink "the north" is way more prepared to deal with a hurricane than miami is prepared to deal with a 1 foot snowfall. We don't typically get hurricanes at their full power, but the difference is much like a jock throwing a haymaker, we can see the hurricane coming from way way off. The north also gets Nor'easters and other bad storms, so it's not like we are completely unprepared.
Whats happening now is the media hyping the hurricane to panic people into going out and buy buy buy (SO YOU'LL BE PREPARED!) instead of being responsible and just hunkering down. Should you make sure that you have batteries, some water and planned for having no power for a day or 2? Sure... but why would you go out and buy $500 worth of food and spend even money in supplies when if you do lose power it will all go to waste OR you are stuck with all that excess... which will get thrown out. People living near the shore should evacuate--yeah, but in my area people are going out and buying generators in such bulk that Lowes and Home Depot are selling out within hours.
While it makes sense to have emergency personnel on stand by and to follow common sense, the widespread panic is absolutely sickening. Anyone with half a freaking brain knows that the hurricanes always lose power as they get further and further into the colder waters. What we are seeing is the media trying to panic people into buying things (click on our ads) that they don't need. It's overhyped and people are freaking out for exactly no reason.
It's just a hurricane, not the end of the world.