You are grossly misinformed. Of course I know about flood damage! It's the storm surge that caused all the damage to Galveston and that coastal area with Ike. Rita had a lot more wind damage than Sandy. I have several friends who lost not only their beach houses but their beach front lots...now part of the GOM and the water is up to where the houses were. One friends' house was found across the highway with the pictures still on the walls. It wasn't blown away, it was washed away by the storm surge!
Ike covered most of TX.
Again, I guess you know more than I do because... I had to (mandatory) evacuate Rita and Ike. Between these two, we were spared evacuation from Gus...it turned.
Sandy was not that strong a storm...as hurricanes blow.
The worst part is just now coming...when shock turns to frustration and anger...when people can't get fuel or groceries.
BTW, several tank trucks of fuel from Houston have already arrived outside NYC...waiting to get in.
Just now looking at TV shots of large swaths of New Jersey still underwater ~
BTW, I"ve been relocated myself, even lived through a tropical storm here with two weeks of rain. Then there was hurricane Hazel ~ it made it all the way to Indiana, but on a trail of destruction, and it rained for about a month. This storm was so big it was still blowing and flooding Eastern states and it too was in Indiana ~ and Illinois and Wisconsin ~ created 25 ft high waves on Lake MIchigan. Only reason you don't hear much about damage around the Great Lakes is there are only a few parts where people actually have structures down on the shoreline ~
Tornadoes are far worse. Been through several of those. Our neighborhood was hit with one 12 blocks wide that bounced from one street to another ~ and left us alone. All our neighbors to the East and West found their homes turned to trash ~ all their stuff scattered everywhere. The lucky ones simply had their roofs turned end to end. We may have lost a couple of tiles, but our good fortune in the midst of destruction was rare.
Tornadic winds are far faster and more powerful than hurricane winds, but a single tornado, unlike even a weak hurricane, is not likely to shut down a state.