Bitt, you are quite correct, my house here (TX) is rock faced wood frame. Whereas my old house in England was brick outside, block inside, all tied together with steel links and insulation in between totalling aroung 12-14 inches thick. The dry wall is usually stuck to the inside block.
It has to be strong to support the weight of all that tile on the roof!

The actual contruction is the big difference, the US facing is not designed to be load bearing whereas the european version is. That is the main reason why no-one builds european style in the US, the skillbase does not exist for structural brickwork so the cost would be very scary.

Much like in England, where building wooden houses is extremely rare so there are very few builders with the skill to do it. Which also means that most english mortgage companies will usually refuse to give you a mortage on a wooden home.

I think my point was really aimed at areas like Kansas and the rest of tornado alley where entire subdivisions are wiped clean only to be rebuilt the same way.

But if you really want a structure that is proven tornado/hurricane proof, check out www.monolithic.com