Some people have been saying that nothing happened anywhere. Some people have been saying so from the time the storm was in N. Carolina. Despite Irene being about the size of Texas, some people have been saying it was never a hurricane. Some people have been saying it was all hype and for the benefit of Obama or...whatever. Nevermind that Irene was still flooding people out when it reached Vermont. Some people will say anything.
There certainly is mass confusion on that point.
When it hit North Carolina it was still a Cat 1 briefly, and I have not read about anyone claiming otherwise.
On the second landfall, near NYC, however it's a different story, because by then it had attenuated to a Tropical Storm, although the "mine was worse than yours" crowd are adamant that it was still a Cat 1 hurricane.
If we're going to have definitions, let's not allow the hysterical to manipulate reality.
As states farther north can testify, a Tropical Storm can be just as bad in terms of destruction, if not in lives lost.