Hurricanes - Gustav, Hanna, Ike

The succession of hurricanes this year is getting a lot of discussion in the media. For those of us who've never experienced living in a hurricane zone, I wonder how those people deal with the hassle of it. They just get back from Gustav and then Ike's on the way - and, to be safe, they should leave. But, if there's one thing this country believes in, its never let the weather get in the way of business. So, what do they do about work? It seems if they all evacuate, no one works for about a week and then another week later it happens again? Maybe this is so unusual that it isn't really an issue? But, at least every year we hear about hurricanes. Maybe because they hit in a variety of places from the Gulf Coast to Florida's coast, to the Atlantic coast? To me, its all the same (southwest region of US), but maybe it makes more of a difference than I realize; the difference between a windy, rainy day to destruction of life and property. But, if that's so, it makes the experience of Cuba and the Bahamas and all those Caribbean countries sound even more scary -and they have less resources to deal with it. Where do they go? I'd be just plain nervous all the time.