When I was living in New Orleans in the early ‘80s, every hurricane season there was speculation about the killer storm. They couldn’t predict when it would happen, only that it would. 30 years later Katrina came.
It was in the 80s the first time I went to New Orleans. I recall walking with a native looking up at the levee and he commented that some day, a big storm would hit and the whole city would be underwater.
Any intelligent person there knew it was inevitable. It was just a question of when it would happen.
Same goes for the Northeast where Sandy hit. It was tragic, but not in anyway unexpected.