If 1500 people died from a blizzard, it would be a reasonable response to suggest that those kind of things would be a good idea.

if 1500 people died from a sustained blizzard lasting a decidedly "abnormal" period of time would be a better equivalency. It's not like someone just turned the heat lamp on France for a day and zapped 1500 people and then turned it off. People are much better equipped to quickly respond to a catastrophic event. They're less prepared for a sustained shift of their fundamental way of experiencing life.

This is true.

Texas for the most part is not prepared for blizzards or icy conditions. We do not have winter tires, we do not carry snow shovels. There are no snowplows that I have ever seen or heard of. We close schools after 1 to 2 inches of snow, and we put sand on roads.

Most people have heavy coats/jackets, but rarely ever wear them. But despite our under-preparedness, not many people die from cold weather in Texas.

This data is a bit old(2003-2008), but is illustrative.

https://www.dshs.texas.gov/chs/vstat/Hotcolddths/hotcolddths...

Arguably, the yearly flu death are related the the winter month weather. People dying from that every year are about factor 10 more then the summer heat deaths.

> * “where are their snow plows, snow chains, heavy jackets, insulated pipes, etc?”*

I live in Houston. When it snows here we will sometimes see sand trucks driving around. They come down from North.

You can't just truck in AC though so I think your example is like comparing apples to oranges.