That is true. But that is the broken window fallacy. Let's say you have a window and S100 that you were planning to spend on a CD player.
The hurricane comes along and smashes your window, which will cost $100 to replace. True, the window guy makes $100, so it appears to be an economic benefit. But the audio equipment retailer is out the $100, although he may not know it because he didn't know you were planning to by the CD player. But his loss is real nonetheless.
Meanwhile, you are poorer because before the hurricane you would have had a window and a CD player. But now you only have a window.
If the window guy's gain were really a net advantage to the economy, then it would be a viable economic program for the US president to evacuate an American city and nuke it every few years in order to boost the economy.
But of course, in addition to being morally wrong, obviously such a policy would make the nation poorer. One cannot destroy a nation into prosperity.
That's interesting...I'd never thought of it that way.