I can see both sides of this. On the other hand, we saw after Andrew the building codes were vastly improved which has caused far less damage to occur in recent storms than what could have been. The outcome of Surfside was the state legislature passing new inspection requirements instead of the old 40 year requirement. What other outcome do you think would have been sufficient other than that and paying off the families? And regarding the developers, they only make money if people want to live where they build. Should the blame be on the developers or the people who choose to live on the coast? It's not like the residents aren't aware of the risks, they would just rather live near the water. Same can be said about small business owners like those stores and restaurants in Fort Myers Beach. People will always go to the beach and those business owners want to provide them services.
Honest question: what do you think a solution should be? Passing legislation prohibiting building a certain distance from the coast? I don't think only developers would be against that but all those other residents and business owners who want waterfront properties.