Yes, the average person here isn't prepared for 8 feet of water on their property. Neither is the average person in New Orleans, Houston, or Miami. So to say that Sandy wasn't a "big one" because of a category number is to ignore human tragedy that took place and the massive destruction that was caused.
I guess we're defining "big one" differently. I'm speaking of the raw force of the storm and you're concentrating on the damage it causes. My point is that many times the damage caused is exacerbated by the lack of the preparedness of the victims.
Preparedness is more than thinking a storm can hurt you. Its about a myriad of issues:
Things like taking the threat seriously and acting on the threat (e.g boarding up and leaving). Its about land use. Its about local governments having the guts to tell developers, "no you can't build that condo right on the water", and "yes we need marshes to act as natural barriers and allow storm waters to drain". Its about a whole host of things that people either don't know, bother to learn, or forget because they haven't been damaged lately... and yes, New Orleans, Houston and Miami are lacking.... primarily due to the greed of developers, laziness and corruption of the local authorities and the ignorance of the people who live in these high risk places. Most of the people of New Orleans live below sea level. To me, that's stupid. And yet, even after Katrina, they've demonstrated they're not prepared to deal with another storm because they can't keep their pumps operational. That's inexcusable.
All that being said, there's a reason storms are categorized. A category 2 storm is a far cry from a category 5.
