One thing we need to remember is that the rainfall that comes with hurricanes is necessary to replenish our drinking water supplies. Central Florida recently came out of a drought cycle (and now is in a flood cycle -post Frances) and all during the drought water managers kept saying that Florida desperately needed the rains associated with several big hurricanes to bring ground water supplies back to normal levels.

All I can say about trying to stop hurricanes is that it is "not nice to fool mother nature". Hurricanes, and unfortunately their accompanying destruction, are a necessary component to sustaining life as we know it. Fortunately we have the technology today to predict with some degree of certainty the location of landfall and measures can be taken to prevent the loss of life (i.e., evacuate!). We also have building codes that make our structures better withstand hurricanes, providing better protection of property.