There are/were plans to protect the New York/Jersey coast. Some communities did it, some didn't. Those communities that didn't were among the worst affected. It's not hard to look this stuff up. I've been listening to the story on NPR for the last few weeks. There is a science behind it that is government backed.
" Hurricane Sandy battered the coastline here in New York and New Jersey. Take the city of Long Beach on Long Island. In 2006, the city council unanimously rejected a plan to construct 15-foot-high dunes on the beach there, saying that the 15-foot-high dunes would block ocean views, lower property values, affect surfers' waves.
And then Sandy hit and cost some $200 million in damage. Would dunes have spared that Long Beach, that damage? Possibly, because several neighboring communities that did build dunes escaped the worst of Sandy's wrath. What's our next step? Do we abandon the most vulnerable barrier islands, allowing them to be shifted or swallowed up by the sea? Or do we fortify our beachside communities with more mega-dunes, sea walls and jetties? A little bit of both?
..."
http://www.npr.org/2013/01/25/170267849/shoring-up-the-nations-crumbling-coastlines