What’s really sad is that the NOAA has to issue a statement informing politicians, citizens and other assorted intellectuals in the country of this simple fact.
There was nothing unusual about a Cat 1 hurricane. The only thing odd is that we have had so few hurricanes recently that no one seemed to be prepared for this one nor do we seem to be able to dig out of it’s aftermath.
And the fact that they over hyped Irene last year as it was not near as bad as predicted. Lots of flood damage though as Irene made 2 or 3 actual landfalls in the US.
Have to give them credit though with the tracking prediction for Sandy. Most of the models had it correct (European anyway), except for a few models which wavered back and forth with respect to the left turn.