The storm that caused Robinson Crusoe to be shipwrecked was immensely important. In the story (and in Castaway, a modern movie version of Robinson Crusoe), the storm gave the book a decent plot. Without a storm the plane or ship would have been found and the survivors could have been rescued fast. With the storm, the plane was forced to move off course and lose radio contact so that the survivors could not be easily rescued. The ship, too, was blown far off course so that any survivors would end up far from the intended course. Without a storm, the plot would have been unbelievable.