> In contrast, houses and most buildings in Europe are much sturdier, being built with stone or cinder blocks or brick for the whole wall and inside walls.

I don't know the stats, but cinder block construction is very common in Florida. The house I grew up in is cinder block, which helps with hurricane protection.

I currently live in California, and one of the big surprises when moving out here was how much of the construction is simple wooden frames. I wouldn't extrapolate that to all of America.