It doesn't have to be all or nothing. There's also probably room for stronger building codes in riskier areas. This hurricane (and others in the past) literally

It doesn't have to be all or nothing. There's also probably room for stronger building codes in riskier areas. This hurricane (and others in the past) literally changed where the coastline is in some places. But from some of the pictures I've seen, you do have some neighborhoods where one side is slightly higher than the other side and thus survived much better. Maybe some of those houses shouldn't have been built, and berms strategically placed and other things. One house not being built may under some circumstances prevent multiple other houses from being destroyed down the road. This seems like a low hanging fruit kind of thing if the priorities are there, before getting into beefing up infrastructure and more expensive options. The amount of damage from hurricanes is trending higher and higher as time goes on, so something has to give and currently it seems federal flood insurance is doing all the giving.