Take a look at this table from NOAA. A category 1 hurricane can do a helluva lot of damage and kill a lot of people.

Jack -

The other day - Monday I think - I looked into Wikipaedia for some maps of drainage basins in North Jersey to get an idea about the reasons for the late crest and the flooding.

It still amazes me how much woodland there still is in North Jersey up along the NY border in Passaic County. Looking at the area around Greenwood Lake, the drainage into the Wanaque Reservoir, the Wanaque River down into the Piscataway and the Passaic, its not really surprising that with 11 inches of rain on that basin that they have the floods.

That waterfall in Paterson is certainly no Multnomah Falls in terms of height, but a huge volume of water is going over it.

The problem is that once NYC was largely spared, the media lost interest in reporting on the devastation going on elsewhere.

In bucolic western MA:

"About 140,000 Massachusetts customers of National Grid and NStar were still without power as of 9 a.m., the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency said.

The state Department of Transportation also reported several major roads closed, including sections of Interstate 91 and Route 2 in Western Massachusetts."
http://www.boston.com/Boston/metrodesk/2011/08/mass-continues-struggle-with-irene-impacts/o8edXA56aWNQixV55HWHWP/index.html

In sodden southern VT:

"Tropical Storm Irene did more than gut businesses, homes and of­fices in Wilmington, population 1,876. Three days after the storm, the town remains virtually isolated from outside: Irene’s flooding wiped out all major roads and bridges in every direction.

By late Tuesday, vehicles laden with water, fuel and food further stirred the thick dust in Wilming­ton; they’d at last completed a de­tour that took them through North Adams, Mass."
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20110831/NEWS02/110831005/-1/NEWS/A-day-town-battered-by-Irene

"All of Wilmington's critical infrastructure has been devastated. Police, Fire, Wastewater and Town Services. Most of the Downtown Business suffered extensive water damage, the route 9 bridge in downtown has not been inspected for structural soundness."
ttp://www.wilmingtonvermont.us/

In rustic, live-free-or-die NH, where primary season has already begun to rev:

"GILFORD, N.H. -- After a lunch speech today, Ron Paul slammed the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, and said that no national response to Hurricane Irene is necessary.

'We should be like 1900; we should be like 1940, 1950, 1960,' Paul said. 'I live on the Gulf Coast; we deal with hurricanes all the time. Galveston is in my district.'"
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/26/7488430-ron-paul-no-fema-response-necessary?pc=25&sp=25

Ease up on the sarcasm about New England already Gardiner. Some of us have friends and family there. And take your butt to Springfield to the "ethnic" sections and just let me know if it is buccolic or just as bad as the old Columbia Villa.

If NH had suffered any significant damage, the Repugs would be singing a far different tune for primary season.

Re: "Ease up on the sarcasm about New England already Gardiner."

LucsA,

No sarcasm there, not even in the placement of the Ron Paul piece. I spent only a quarter-century in NE -- just a small part of it admiring covered bridges. VT, MA, and, apparently, upstate NY have taken a great hit; the pain continues among some of our most stoical citizens as they realize the extent of their losses.

The destruction in Wilmington VT speaks for itself, as does Mr Paul's assertion that FEMA should not exist because it did not exist when Galveston was demolished over a century ago. I've just let them speak to each other.

The AP has provided this state-by-state summary of Irene's impact:

"Residents in the East are coping with the lingering effects of Irene, the storm that swept up the coast, first as a hurricane and later as a tropical storm. It knocked out power to millions of homes and businesses and has killed more than 40 people. A state-by-state look at its impact, according to state officials, residents, relief agencies and others:"
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/08/31/a_state_by_state_look_at_irenes_impact/?page=1

My friends in RI are now being told they won't get power back on Sat. but maybe Sunday. Meanwhile their generator is struggling to keep the pump running.