It's sad that it takes something like that to open eye, but honestly I don't know if I've ever seen anything else do the trick.
Understandable. Education, our government and the culture do not encourage preparedness for the most part.
Everyone is at different stages on the journey to preparedness. Too many are entirely clueless. Others may just have dim concerns about one possible problem on the horizon. The most likely disasters are personal and/or small scale- unemployment, medical problems, a personal disaster such as theft, fire, bankruptcy, etc. Larger disasters: area, regional, national and international can have wider impact, but the preps are often the same or at least overlap.
When you see someone express an interest in learning more about how to protect themselves and their family, encourage them and point them to information so that they can help themselves. Every prepared person/family is more resilient in tough times and likely one less that will overwhelm government assets if major disasters happen.