A few people live in Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, etc. too.
I fully understand that quite a few people live in those areas you mentioned but I think you miss my point.
It is severe enough when a big storm hits areas that are prepared for it and used to those conditions. It is quite another thing when a storm (albeit smaller) hits one of the most densely populated areas in the country and when the people who live and travel there are not accustomed to big winter weather events such as this one.
You might think that it is funny that the mid-Atlantic folks take this "little storm" so seriously but unfortunately I have witnessed the deaths and injury that such storms invariably bring to this region. Big snow storms do not happen often enough around here for most folks to become adept at safely navigating through them and someone always ends up getting killed. Personally I don't find that funny at all.