Wow, Howard, you surely take worst case thinking seriously!
Nowadays, when everyone have a video camera at hand, and are connected to the web, every spectacular weather situation will soon end up on TV or YouTube (together with all other sorts of mishaps and disasters). I think this has had a negative effect on us.
I live on the lee coast of the Atlantic Ocean. It can be windy there from time to time, but storm or hurricane force winds are still quite rare. That is, storm force winds may hit somewhere on the longish coast of Norway several times a year, but only on small areas, and only for a short while each time. The thing is that videos from damage will be distributed - flying barn roofs, a blown-over bus or a stranded boat look good on TV.
Weather forecast services these days are much more accurate than thirty years ago. By checking the met before a weekend cruise, one can be pretty well protected against winds above F6 or F7.
Even a full-time cruiser like Annie Hill no doubt uses the services from the Met to stay out of serious trouble (..in addition to having serious anchoring gear...)
Perfectly safe sailing and anchoring do not exist, but we are able to improve the odds if we take care.
It may well end well.
Cheers,
Arne