Interesting post.
I don't think many people build with the knowledge that they will almost certainly be wiped out one day. You suggest that those who build on the coast are doing just that - yet the truth speaks otherwise. I can't remember Fort Lauderdale or Miami ever being hit by anything significant. Hurricane Andrew hit Homestead FL in 1992, but Miami didn't take too much damage. Fort Lauderdale was almost unscathed.
Tampa hasn't been hit by a category 3 or larger in more than a century. They thought they were going to be hit by Irma but they weren't. Their streak lives on.
While it would be an understatement to call a South Floridian's chance of having hurricane damage one day 'a snowball's chance in hell,' it's also wrong to sum it up the way you have. It's not inevitable, and the majority of hurricane victims don't take serious damage very often.
By the way, I can't help but to note a certain irony in your post: While you've done a lot to protect your family from a natural disaster that MIGHT happen one day, I've never heard you say that you've done anything to protect them from a man-made disaster that you KNOW is coming. I'm speaking, of course, of socio-political-economic turmoil, or what I sometimes refer to as TEOTWAWKI.
Does ignoring TEOTWAWKI make any more sense than residing by the seashore, basking in the sun and pretending year by year that a day of reckoning isn't on its way? Less, I'd say. The ocean dwellers are playing the odds that they won't be there when disaster strikes and, meanwhile, they're living it up, getting the most enjoyment they possibly can out of life by living in paradise.
But TEOTWAWKI? It's on the way. We all know that it is. A few of us may die first and thus avoid the problem that way, but our children - who we've placed into this situation as surely as if we'd bought a home in New Orleans - won't.
Isn't that an equally irresponsible form of risk taking?
You knew I'd disagree with your post and I have, but perhaps not for the reason you expected. The MAIN reason I disagree with it is because I don't see you getting ready for a much worse catastrophe that has a far greater probability of happening. Think about that. There's still time to avoid the storm.
I'm going to modify Nemo's post #33743 #msg-1013623 just a tad because I'm big on irony and I think his advice, with just a little tweeking, speaks so well to my point:
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