Everyone has a better sense of what it takes to get through this, and what it means to deal with your neighborhood and your house - so on a purely living-your-life level, everyone is prepared. Terrified, but prepared. As a society - as a group of people living on the level of 'we need to make electricity and distribute water and take care of ourselves as an island,' we're not prepared at all. We are screwed, and everyone knows that.