Will the latest super-blizzard slamming the Northeast U.S. actually help to boost Canadian investors' returns and work to further concrete Edmonton and Calgary as new world cities' that can't be beat? Dubbed the snowpocalypse', the almost record breaking blizzard bringing 3 feet plus of snow, flooding and power outages to 650,000 businesses and residents in New England could be the last straw for many and mark a major shift in the U.S. real estate landscape, as well as global business trends and property investment. This latest natural disaster causing massive evacuations, multiple states declaring a state of emergency around 5,000 flights being cancelled, at least 4 major airports shut and stacking up huge financial losses on top of the $50 billion plus from Sandy could change many things for good. Residents, businesses and commercial real estate investors in NY, RI, NJ, MA and CT just can't seem to get a break and the future doesn't look any brighter either. Peak hurricane season is essentially only a matter of weeks away for the Atlantic coastline and 2013 is expected to be an incredibly active year in terms of major storms. The realization that individuals, businesses and even the government can't hack it anymore is really setting in, in earnest. Even if able to pull it through it means businesses losing their edge and dying a slow death and the old financial and business hubs of NYC and Boston could well find themselves mortally wounded too. Our weather might not seem much warmer in AB, but it’s not having the devastating consequences on business growth, personal wealth, and certainly does not bring the same risks for real estate investors. It doesn't matter what returns are promised or could be potentially possible up the east coast of the U.S. it's all for nothing if wiped out by a storm or government decides to buy out property owners for less than land is worth or seize it by eminent domain as NY Gov. Cuomo hopes to do. Safety? No way; not with any discount' or low interest rate. Sure Toronto and Vancouver may have their issues but it doesn’t seem to matter how cold it gets in Edmonton, the commercial real estate returns are hot, and seem to be just warming up as a flurry of new development plans are set to push up values and rents.