The wreckage and destruction of a Cat5 coming up the Hudson to hit them would make 9/11, Dresden, and Hiroshima combined look like a picnic. Fortunately, I don't think a storm could maintain that kind of power in these 'northern' waters.
Don't mean to scare you, but one could. A strong storm riding up the gulf stream, just grazing the coast,would only hit "cooler" water right past the tip of NC, from there it's only a couple hundred miles to NYC - not enough to diminish the intensity very much at all. An intense 170 mph storm would drop to 145/150, still a cat5. This hasn't happened in a major extent in modern meteorological times, trajectory and all, but I'm sure it's possible.