Every hurricane is terrible to the people that it hits. Hurricane Sandy was no different from any other hurricane in that respect.
By historical standards, Hurricane Sandy was a relatively minor hurricane (Category 1 when it made landfall). What made it so damaging was where it made landfall - a very high population area with a high density of oceanfront development.
It has been over seven years since a Category 3 or greater hurricane has made landfall in the U.S. This is the longest period of no major hurricanes since we began measuring them.
We are constantly told that the past 10 years of mild summers and hard winters is not evidence against Global Warming. We are also told that the seven year stretch with no major hurricanes is also not evidence against Global Warming. The fact that every Global Warming model ten years ago predicted annual increases in warming and annual increases in the rate and intensity of hurricanes is irrelevant.
And yet, every time there is a hurricane or any other extreme weather event (which we naturally have all the time somewhere in the world) it is immediately proclaimed as yet more proof of Global Warming.
It is almost certain that the next seven years will have more severe hurricanes than the last seven. It is simply the law of averages. It is also certain that every hurricane will be proclaimed as proof of Global Warming. It is simply the law of Global Warming politics.
Let's take this one step further. This storm demonstrates the idiocy of people who are facing a major catastrophic event and somehow assume that: (1) nobody has ever dealt with this sort of thing before; and (2) it must be an ominous sign of doom, and a portent of things to come.
I have not been able to confirm this, but my research indicates that this was the first hurricane to make landfall in New Jersey since 1903. Every other hurricane that has affected this state since 1903 either made landfall elsewhere, or weakened to a tropical storm before making landfall.
A lot of people just aren't capable of figuring out that it really is this simple. It's the first hurricane to make landfall in New Jersey in almost 110 years, there are a lot more people living here than ever before, and since we rely so heavily on electrical power, any disruption the storm causes will be magnified by the loss of power.