I agree, folks who grow up or spend most of their life in a particular area have learned from experience what it takes to prepare and react to their region's threats (natural or otherwise). Whether they choose to heed it is another issue. A good example is the military, when you travel or get assigned to a new region you get a "threat brief". That includes everything from possible natural disasters to the local scam of the day. It is not optional. Often there are threat briefings for areas within the US!! Now if the poor PFC from LA is scammed on the streets of NYC or stuck in the mud in Alabama, they were warned. They may have been asleep during the briefing, but it is still their fault. For civilians, they must go looking for the same type of info (not likely). I am not suggesting mandatory threat briefings for civies, but I do think it makes sense to understand the areas which we travel and live.

Marc