Last I checked, the Netherlands doesn't get hit by hurricanes. Much easier when you don't have to worry about them wouldn't you agree.
Considering that they started reclaiming the land from the sea over a thousand years ago and have been at it ever since on an ever increasing scale, often overcoming enormous technical problems after substantial setbacks, including breaches in the dikes and seawalls, some of which were quite large, the absence of hurricanes does not invalidate the point. There have been signficant storms that did substantial damage. The point is that there was from way back, a spirit of enterprise to reclaim the land and a refusal to give it up to the natural forces that otherwise would have prevailed.