There's not very much that you can do against that particular threat model other than not live there, but one of the big reasons that the area is so popular with tourists is that it's easily accessible to most people (you can easily get to Gatlinburg or Asheville within a day's drive from pretty much anywhere you would consider "the southeast US"), it's pretty, and in summer you can escape the oppressive heat without having to go to the upper Midwest or the Rockies.
Massive landslides and floods will wipe out your natural gas lines, your propane tanks, your wind and solar generators, your battery backups...
