Forget the coast, we are roughly 200 air miles from the Gulf and get hit with Hurricanes more often than we would like. Laura tore us up pretty bad, pretty much destroying anything not tied down and some things that were tied down. Rita, the same. Several have hit since 2000, none are pleasant, all cause weeks worth of cleanup.
As far as living near the coast, I would prefer a steel framed home, with the beams well set in a solid concrete foundation, about 50 or so miles from the coast, and having an area of at least say 5 acres clear of trees and then surrounded with lots of forest (at least a quarter section, prefer more.). That said, around Niceville and Valparaiso, i see lots of tall, multi story, slab sided homes, built of wood frames. Right on Boggy Bayou, with a southern wind fetch of all the way to the Santa Rosa Island. Like, what are these people thinking? I could all but blow them over and destroy them with a good sneeze.
Our Caney Lake home is set on a deep cove with lots of trees and rising ground to protect us from every direction but the east-northeast. (ENE) So, we get lots of storms, lots of high winds but rarely ever feel them. Unfortunately, Laura blew up the border between Louisiana and Texas and the above pictures are the result. Hurricane force winds were out of the (you guessed it) East Northeast. Had to be caused by an outlier storm. As always the trees are a bit scary And the insurance rates now reflect the close proximity of the trees location.