My players are in a city that is about to be attacked by an ancient red dragon. I want this encounter to bring home just how bad an angry dragon is for everyone. I've decided to treat the dragon attack like a natural disaster, and emphasize citizens fleeing (thread of being trampled/angry mobs/looters), buildings burning (fire damage/blocked escape routes/rescue attempts), government officials trying to maintain order (roleplay opportunity), and guards running about frantically trying to muster a defense (possible conscription to the local militia).
Does anyone have any other suggestions for how to bring home just how big a disaster is happening?
Fire giants. Seeing that the country has a group of fire giants (either bought as mercenaries, enslaved magically, or it is the effect of some fancy magical item turning soldiers into giants).
Seeing a troop of giants just going own the street like they just belong there.
Seeing giant boulders flying through the air by the dozen certainly gives off an impression.
Seeing a bunch of dead fire giants, because ancient dragon with a ton of magic
Seeing all this drives home 'no, this is serious guys'.
And the dragon will need some sort of minions to make this properly terrifying. Describe how they sweep through the streets butchering everything that moves.
Make the guards flee when it goes badly.
Perhaps kill some famous dragon slayer (if you were planning this from a while ago, the PCs would've spent the whole campaign hearing legends of their exploits), right in front of them.
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Remember that ancient red dragons' breath can even melt stone. You may see people seeking shelter in a nice sturdy stone building only to have it turned into a heap of volcanic rubble on top of them.
Just how big and well-equipped a city are we talking here? What level will the PCs be?
If the city has enough guards with magic weapons, numbers will not be on the dragon's side. Conversely, if no guards or PCs have a magic weapon, that DR 15/magic is going to be one heck of a defense.
Don't forget the heat! As mentioned above the dragon can melt stone with his breath and numerous mundane fires are surely to start when the more flammable materials simply combust. The city could quickly turn into a furnace, where every breath is a painful endeavour. Add a bit of smoke and screaming to this and I'm sure the atmosphere gets properly exciting!
There's a lot of great advice here already. Consider this; when you're DMing (I'm old school so DM it is), look at your games as movies with your players as the stars. How would you SEE such an event happening? Now, take that into account and just IMAGINE the damage an ancient red dragon's breath would do to anything around them. Just look at their damage pool of dice and then compare that to ANYTHING they breath on! If you were a townie, what in the heck would YOU do if you knew a dragon was going to attack the city? Just imagine the chaos and also describe the effects of a nearby breath weapon attack. What does it SMELL and SOUND like? Adding more senses in there makes it a lot more REALISTIC to the PCs and also will probably brand that encounter in their mind & their memories (both PCs & players) as well. The more detail you add (just as long as you're not dumping a couple of gallons of flavor text into each sentence that is), the more realistic and vivid you will make it to your players. Sure some players may just want to reduce it to a series of dry calculations and so on but I never run my games that way. Adding sensory info and 'fluff' to the game sparingly can really make a huge difference to your draconic encounter. Also think of it this way. If you've ever watched or even been a part of an armed conflict where a region, perhaps a whole town or more was destroyed by modern weapons such as bombs, explosions and so on, what does that LOOK, smell and sound like? There's a reason why the game was originally called Dungeons & Dragons. Dragons should NEVER be an easy kill nor a casual encounter! I hope this helps.