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Well, we Edmontonians may have 5 months of cold weather, but we have a minor tornado every 50 years or so, and that's about it. Weather rarely kills anyone here. I'll take the snow over a hurricane, thanks.
What are building codes like? Were they relaxed to allow lower cost of building? I could see that, but sheesh, if you could buy insurance, it would probably be expensive. What is the cost of losing your home compared to building it "hurricane proof" in the first place? Would be interesting to figure out.
In the far north we had to deal with extreme weather. Extreme cold and hurricane force winds. People quickly learned to build to suit the conditions. We had to deal with permafrost and all material had to be transported from great distances. It really jacked up the cost of construction. Building a house on stilts (pilings driven into permafrost) made it tricky to build to withstand winds, but it was done. This was in 1970.
Now, we can get all nuts about broken houses, but the real concern is people dying. From what I have seen, evacuation is almost impossible in some areas thanks to roads becoming gridlocked. Maybe there is a way to provide assitance to people to build stronger houses (that would provide SAFE refuge) in areas where the weather is most likely to hit and evacuation is difficult? It seems that Florida and some other seaboard states are going to have to come up with something. This must be taking a tremdous toll on the people in these areas. Personally, I don't know how they do it. When I'm deep in the backcountry, I'm never afraid of animals. It's weather that can do you in.
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