Sandy was only CAT 1 when it struck land. That’s considerably less powerful than the CAT 5s of other years.
If it had hit a red state instead of New York it would barely have made the news.
The only reason it knocked out power is because the US grid uses so many overhead cables.
Yeah, which reminds me, where have all the Cat 5’s gone? Second, I would argue that warmer temperatures on average are actually better. They certainly were better for Western Civilization, which could not be said for the Little Ice Age.
The main power outages in Manhattan was caused by flooding in company substations. Too much equipment at grade or below grade.
http://www.coned.com/newsroom/news/pr20121029_5.asp
The Con Edison outages were roughly split between the company's underground and overhead systems.