I was having a respectful disagreement with another person...
Perhaps, but not very convincingly. From Wiki (and this is only current to 2007 if I understand it):
Since 1851, a total of 292 North Atlantic hurricanes produced hurricane-force winds in 19 states along the Atlantic coast.
A total of 292 Atlantic tropical cyclones have produced hurricane-force winds in every state along the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, as well as Pennsylvania. Florida was affected by 118 hurricanes, which is more than any other state; Texas ranked second. Hurricane Donna affected a total of eight states—more than any other hurricane.
The 1880s were the most active decade for the United States, with a total of 25 hurricanes affecting the nation. By contrast, the least active decade was the 1970s, with a total of only 12 hurricanes affecting the American coastline. A total of 33 seasons on record passed without an Atlantic hurricane affecting the country—the most recent of which was the 2015 season. Seven Atlantic hurricanes affected the country in the 1886 season, which was the year with the most United States hurricanes.
Records will be broken, but the basic nature of the hurricane has been around for a long time. And the Gulf is notorious for sustaining the storms with its warm waters. You can have your opinion, but rather than argue about whether this one is "special", I'd rather know what your point is. Global warming?
Apparently the new conservative orthodoxy is that if you acknowledge any sort of highly unusual weather occurrence, you’re a global warming advocate.
The cause? Bad luck. Warm gulf waters, combined with two high pressure systems blocking the storm from going anywhere. Thats it.
Here’s my point. This is a bad, bad storm. Catastrophic? Its looking that way. At least if you’re living through it. Unprecedented? Nothing is unprecedented given the span of history. But i’m struggling to think of an example of a storm that hung around a massive metropolitan area for 5+ days, dropping 50+ inches of rain. That is pretty much a perfect storm. And those who are dismissing it as “just another storm” are trying WAY too hard to prove how cool and unaffected by events they are.