So they're calling Sandy a 1 in 100 year storm...

calling it a "super storm" and all this other hyperbole and it's mostly a crock.

Sandy is unique in only a few aspects.  One is the size of the storm.  It is the largest hurricane in Atlantic history in terms of the area it covered, both in total and in the area covered by tropical storm force winds.  But there have been typhoons in the Pacific that were even larger in area.

Sandy's eye went ashore in a very heavily populated area, and even though it was only a Category 2 storm, it had plenty of storm surge and caused damage.  But it was only a Category 2 storm.  Let's look at the categories.

For comparison, Hurricanes Katrina and Camille (1969) were Category 5 storms.  Camille came ashore with sustained winds of more than 190 miles per hour.  259 people died from Camille.  1,833 people died from Katrina.  So far the death toll from Sandy stands at 122.  Tragic, but nowhere near as bad as other hurricanes have been.  In comparison, the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane killed more than 4,000 people.

The damage estimates from Hurricane Sandy stand at $25 billion.  Serious, again even tragic.  But the damage total from Katrina exceeded $80 billion.  More than three times worse.

Hurricane Sandy was a major storm.  But it wasn't even the storm of the century.  So far in the 21st century, that's Hurricane Katrina.