That's very interesting...I believe I've read or heard (probably here) that the typhoons of the south Pacific tend to routinely be a good bit stronger than our Atlantic hurricanes. If so, it shows that hurricanse need not be such disasters on the Gulf and Atlantic coasts.
My 1950's house, which has a plywood roof with gravel, nailed onto 2x4 rafters, every 13", in the normal style, used to belong to an engineer who built with a mind to hurricane resistance. It has 4 massive wood beams running lengthwise the entire length of the house, all with hurricane straps attached to every rafter, which means that the number of hurricane straps is about triple what another house of similar sq footage would contain. These beams in turn are attached to vertical columns through embedded steel plate with 3/4" bolts. The column are similarly attached to steel plate set under the slab.
The fact that it was the only house with fairly minimal damage after Andrew says something. OTOH, I boarded up every window, which many people did not, the last hurricane having been long enough ago to have bred complacency.
Nevertheless, while I consider it to be hurricane resistant, I don't think I'd use the word "proof." All would have been for nought had a large pine fallen on her, for instance. The ones you describe are undoubtedly better. You can't beat poured concrete, IMO.
Well another factor in Guam is transportation costs, and local building skills. Cememt and block are made locally, and the locals now how to use it. No doubt a wood frame house can be built very tough, like yours, but for production builders the pressure is always on to cut costs and skimp where it doesn't show. Personally, I'd rather just live in a cement "bunker" like in Guam, and laugh at the winds. Tree across the roof? No big deal.
Plus, in hurricane prone areas which are water short (not north FL!) such as the Bahamas, flat cement roofs are typically used as rain water catchments leading to cement cisterns for water storage. Obviously, this is not a factor in NW FL!
PS: we're moving to the Pcola area next year. Probably Pace/Milton.