After the hurricane passed through New York, I read headlines like this: ‘Some Hurricane,’ New Yorkers Grumble as Danger Passes with quotes like this:

“With all the preparations and all the hoopla on TV, it was all for naught,” he said. “I feel embarrassed that we made such a to-do.”

“The cops were riding around telling people to get out, and we were making fun of what a big deal” the storm had not been, Mr. Fenton said.

No big deal? Maybe he would like to tell that to the million people in New Jersey and New York (each) and the Hundreds of thousands more residents in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island without power, to the people whose houses and businesses floated away, to the million people who rely on the trains to get into the city to work. He could also tell that to the two people whose kayak overturned and the rescue workers that saved their lives, or the hundreds of work crews that labored through the night on the train tracks looking for fallen trees and mud slides and arranging for clean up and repairs.

As for the comment that the mayor over reacted by shutting down mass transit, could you imagine the response if water had gotten into the tunnels and shorted out the system? Not only would you have damage to the system, you would also have hundred if not thousands of people trapped in subway cars in tunnels. Would that have been better?

Yes New York City did not get hit as hard as forecast, but if anyone thinks this storm is no big deal, they should go tell that to the families of the 40 people that died.

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