Seriously, there are very good reasons why these flicks follow these models. The producers see a market audience that wants to be thrilled by the probability of a spectacular natural disaster but is also terrified of having to contemplate the actual possibility of being caught up in one. It's sort of like the old movies where the censor required by law that the guilty antagonist had to be brought to justice, when in reality we all know that more often than not the bad guys, whether they be street punks or corporate criminals, usually get away with it.

I have the same objections to horror movies, they are no more about horror than war movies are about war. There is no monster from out of space or demon from beyond the grave that is anywhere near as evil and terrifying as your common rapist or gangster or tin-horn Saddam-like dictator. Horror movies are designed to reassure us by making the claim that infinite fear issues from unusual circumstances, and distract us from the omnipresence and banality of evil. It's all good, clean harmless fun, of course, I enjoy these movies as much as the next guy, but they only serve to remind us of just how close we are to the edge of the abyss.

"There's a killer on the road,
his brain is squirming like a toad..."

Jim Morrison