Yesterday my high school (and much of the community in which I grew up) burned to the ground.

I'm sorry for you and your community. I've been watching the media coverage, but nothing compares to the reality on the ground, I'm sure. Even from thousands of miles away, it looks horrific.

Point being, whether it's coast impacted by hurricanes, or santa ana wind-driven wildfires, the best laid plans of sprawl developers and sprawl planners are folly when nature does what nature does.

Absolutely. But nature's going to do what it does regardless of whether our urban development patterns are sprawling or concentrated. That doesn't mean they're entirely outside of our ability to affect them. If you sprawl into areas that are prone to a particular natural risk (like wildfires or coastlines), you'll increase some of that risk - and if you sprawl into areas that are not (like Florida's sprawling inland areas, particularly around Orlando in the I-4 corridor), you'll reduce it.

Whether it's sprawl developers or multi-family developers or in-between developers, there's risks and benefits to every type of development pattern.