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Comment by jrockway | Hacker News Reader

And still have a sustained wind speed of less than a tropical storm.

My prediction is that it will rain a lot, but that's about all.

The combined storm system is currently forecast to drop twice as much rain as Irene across a much larger area (recall, if you will, the catastrophic flooding that resulted from that event), raise a 20+ foot storm surge across much of the mid-Atlantic coast during at least two high tide cycles, and produce sustained winds over a 25+ hour period during a time of year when most trees haven't yet fully lost their leaves. There will be millions of people out of power, injuries, and quite possibly deaths (in addition to the ~50 people already dead in the Caribbean).

For anyone reading this, don't listen to an idiot on the internet who doesn't understand weather forecasting (and specifically doesn't understand most damage from storms is done by things other than the maximum wind speed). Read the NWS watches and warnings and listen to your local emergency services.

I like how you created a brand new account just to call me an idiot. My post only objected to the term "superstorm", which this is not.

I don't think super storm is a bad term to use. We call the most severest of storms hurricanes/cyclones. We don't normally call them "super storms". I think super storm suggests a storm that is stronger than the typical storm you'd expect, but doesn't meet the normal definition of a hurricane. Yes you could potentially call a hurricane a "super storm", but not many people do. You could also call them "extreme storms" or "serious storms". Just calling this thing a "storm" I don't think does it justice, and might lull people into thinking that it's not as bad as it could be.

This is what happened to the river in my town last year when it "rained a lot" during Irene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p47txwmuwCY

This is what it normally looks like:

http://franzphoto.com/index.cfm?p=i.19

Yar. Weather people always blow shit out of proportion.

But, I guess it's better than "it'll be some rain" and then have lots of people unprepared resulting in fatalities / injuries.

The weather people aren't blowing it out of portion, the media is doing that.

No, they all are.

* http://www.weather.com/ * http://www.weather.gov/ * http://www.accuweather.com/

Not trying to argue, I just think even the weather people are blowing this out of proportion, not just the media.

I think weather.gov's headline is pretty good: "Sandy Remains a Large and Dangerous Storm; Widespread Impacts Expected Into Early Next Week"

I agree with that statement completely. It's large and dangerous, but not unprecedented or the worst mother nature can do.

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