Hurricane Complacency?

From South Texas neighborhoods that are still knee-deep in floodwater to the site of high-tech, supposedly weatherproof, homes being built in South Florida, forecasters say they are worried.

The worry is that Hurricane Bret's low-impact hit and new home building technology are sending the wrong message. The National Hurricane Center's Jerry Jarrell explains, "People may get the idea it's all talk and no show."

In Galveston, Texas, they're building $1 million homes not far from where 8,000 people died during the killer hurricane of 1900, reports CBS News Correspondent Byron Pitts.

Meanwhile, experts at the National Hurricane Center say it's only a matter of when, not if, the coastal U.S. will be hit by another catastrophic hurricane. And they say this one may be costlier than the $40 billion spent on Hurricane Andrew in 1992, and deadlier than Galveston.

Lives were spared in South Texas this week because Bret did the most damage where the fewest people live. That's good fortune that's hard to count on.

In Deerfield Beach, Florida, the Federal government spent millions building "Disaster Resistant Communities," with homes that could withstand a Category 4 hurricane. New technology and tougher building codes have made homes safer, but even the experts say safer does not mean indestructible.

"As it stands today," notes North Carolina State University's Bo Kasal, "Mother Nature is still more powerful than our technology."