The Dakotas: Zero Hurricanes

Last week NRO reported the number of hurricanes hitting each state in the past 104 years:

Direct Hits, 1900-2004

Florida 64
Texas 38
North Carolina 29
Louisiana 27
South Carolina 16
Alabama 12
Mississippi 9
New York 9
Connecticut 8
Massachusetts 6
Georgia 5
Maine 5
Rhode Island 5
Virginia 5
New Hampshire 2
Maryland 1
New Jersey 1

A state conspicuous by its absence is South Dakota.  I think we've got a new tourism slogan: "Great Faces, Great Places, No Hurricanes." 

Now it turns out that the Wall St. Journal suggests developing inland U.S., including the Dakotas so as to keep our infrastructure and, more importantly, our people away from vulnerable coasts.  What can one say to that?  "Bully!"  Major Georgia hat tip to Joe Knippenberg.  Here's what the Journal has to say:

More broadly, as a nation, we may want to consider ways to encourage greater development further inland. Americans have been crowding into the coasts for generations, even though one of our great assets is the broad interior hinterland. Our continued population growth--from 310 million now to 400 million by 2050--may make repopulating the hinterlands more economically viable. Instead of offering "homesteads" or funds for repeated rebuildings on the crowded, and sometimes dangerous, coasts--particularly in below-sea-level New Orleans--it might make more sense to encourage settlement and investment deeper into our nation's interior.