Realize that the previous record was from when Floyd came through and flooded the crap out of the region.
Realize we have seen major flooding from Irene because, although Irene averaged two inches less than Floyd, the rain was on top of already-record rainfall, that in some drainage basins they saw record flooding.
And realize we are very grateful that there was no nearby frontal boundary like what happened with Floyd and Agnes to amplify the tropical rainfall, and realize that us in the NE are not just being wimps, but realized this could have been really, really bad and are grateful that it was just bad.
There are news stories of Cuomo talking about how THIS DAM needs to be inspected for 'possible' damage because of a small New York earthquake. Earliest story I see is from 8/27. Cuomo said that while the 2.9 magnitude earthquake Saturday was small." http://www.whec.com/news/stories/s2259407.shtml?cat=565
People in this area have been told to evacuate.