Actually, we really don't know the nature of the shortage in any of these places, so let's reserve judgement on how poorly prepared any of these places are.

From one article, it sounds like many of these places get one large shipment of heating oil or gasoline at the start of winter to last them through the whole season. Storage costs money and I doubt many of these residents are rolling in money, and receiving one big shipment may be the only economical way to get that much fuel into these remote communities. The problem this year is that the weather has delayed/blocked that shipment, plus it has been brutally frigid.

Like the article said, people are burning furniture because it's too cold and dangerous to collect firewood outside. If it's too cold for hardy Alaskans to go outside, you know it's cold!