Humans, most of the time, use their brains. We adapt. Here is some pretty startling research from Steven Levitt on the impacts of Hurricane Katrina. Note, that this is not to be construed as advocating breaking windows.

he Economic Impact of Hurricane Katrina on its Victims: Evidence from Individual Tax Returns

Tatyana Deryugina, Laura Kawano, Steven Levitt

NBER Working Paper No. 20713
Issued in November 2014
NBER Program(s):   EEE   PE

Hurricane Katrina destroyed more than 200,000 homes and led to massive economic and physical dislocation. Using a panel of tax return data, we provide one of the first comprehensive analyses of the hurricane’s long-term economic impact on its victims. Katrina had large and persistent impacts on where people live; small and mostly transitory impacts on wage income, employment, total income, and marriage; and no impact on divorce or fertility. Within just a few years, Katrina victims’ incomes fully recover and even surpass that of controls from similar cities that were unaffected by the storm. The strong economic performance of Katrina victims is particularly remarkable given that the hurricane struck with essentially no warning (wintercow emphasis added). Our results suggest that, at least in this particular disaster, aid to cover destroyed assets and short-run income declines was sufficient to make victims financially whole. Our results provide some optimism regarding the costs of climate-change driven dislocation, especially when adverse events can be anticipated well in advance.