Is it worth 3 months of darkness?

Is living in Alaska worth enduring three months of darkness every winter? After what I have seen this fall in the gulf coast I would rather endure three months of cold and dark every year than hurricane season.
I'd rather have the possibility of earthquakes and volcanoes than hurricanes, tornadoes, mudslides, and floods.
I'd rather have bears than snakes, salmon than bass, and most of all I would rather live in a state with a population of 600,000 than endure the masses of most of the rest of the country!

I tell people that I was born in New Mexico but got lucky and my parents moved to Alaska when I was two.

Currently I'm about seven miles from the Arctic Ocean, so you wouldn't think I'd be affected much by a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. However a great number of my coworkers (and close friends) are from the region and I also have family in Houston. At least they were in Houston before they spent all of last night driving. It took them nine hours to drive what normally takes five hours. If they would have waited until morning they might not have even made it. They said it was taking eight hours to travel ten miles today. People are running out of gas on the freeways.

My friend Shannon left Lake Charles Monday evening to head to Houston to fly to Alaska for work and couldn't find a hotel to stay in in Houston. He finally found a place to stay but he said it was less than desirable. When he left home Rita was headed for the Florida Keys, today his wife is stuck on the highway trying to evacuate Lake Charles. Luckily after driving all day she has almost made it to Baton Rouge. She tried to go north but sat in the same spot for two hours on the highway before she decided to head east. Had Shannon had any idea this was going to be how it was going to be he wouldn't have come to work this week.

My friend Rob recently moved from Calgary Alberta to Houston Texas. He and his wife just found a house to buy and she has a new job at a local hospital. Rob flew home on Tuesday and closed on his new house on Wednesday not knowing if it is only going to be wiped out by Rita. He went to Home Depot to get some plywood and duct tape and there was a line to get into the store and they were out of everything he was looking for. The hospital wants his wife to stay at the hospital and since he has nothing in the house to cook with or eat or drink (or furniture), I think he is going to stay at the hospital during the storm.

I hope and pray that everyone I know will get through this storm (and the whole hurricane season) safely.