Man the neighbors house didn't get damaged at all!!! They lucky!!
On a more serious note, I once had a conversation with this sculptor who was showing an exhibit in a museum in town. He was an older guy who's career had been going pretty well and he was ready to build a house. He said he'd been doing a lot of research on the structures that had stood the test of time and they were all circular or rounded - dome structures and the like (with a nod to pyramids as well of course).
We had a long conversation about how the square is probably the least resilient geometric shape and how in western culture we build everything in squares and straight lines. Even a fence built like a wavy line or S curves would stand up to more wind than a fence in a straight line.
Basically what we came down to was once again money. It's cheaper and therefore more profitable to punch out squares like cookie cutters, than to put in the effort for something that will last longer. Furthermore there's more of a market if we have to rebuild and repair more often so it results in more money there too. Even worse a lot of cities will restrict what you can build by making you fall in with certain aesthetic guidelines. So it's an interesting little subtle thing going on there.
Just came to mind with all this hurricane talk lately. I'm in Austin so we've been on edge, but fortunately didn't have much more than light flooding. There are so many things taken for granted in our culture that we could be doing a much better job at. Things like building to last, food that actually benefits us, and of course a financial system that gives people even ground to stand on.
Fight the good fight!