Hurricane Ike vs Houston and Indiana

Hurricane Ike went from Houston to Indiana, killing 112 people. In Houston, "the biggest thing that we were all unprepared for was how long our power would be out." They were otherwise prepared with plenty of water, food, and communication. They went from house to house, staying at friend's who had power, and sharing supplies. They even found out they had too many supplies, and needed to carefully select only the supplies they needed for the next hurricane.

Indiana was completely unprepared unlike Houston. "No one escaped damage and no one had warning. 200+ year old trees slammed into houses, storm drains overflowed and wiped out entire blocks of cars, and signs flew right into their business' windows." They were small town; far away from any city, which benefited them in causing no "mass chaos," whereas Houston made sure they had revolvers handy in case of trouble.  Unfortunately, this prevented them from getting the immediate help that they needed. People were not in extreme panic, but they were not calm either. They all needed food and water after the small stores supply quickly ran out. Several days passed until they finally received assistance, and thankfully it was just in time.