Any storm that can kill a woman in Canada with a sign from winds and still keeps my house company in MD with 40mph winds that are constant at the same time is a pretty powerful storm! It was barely a hurricane though and people are calling it "The Perfect Storm" and "Disaster Toll Uncalculable" Weather people are just milking it for all it's worth and spreading fear through overinflating the harshness of the weather.
We did get lucky though, originally the storm was supposed to hit with 90mph winds in my area, actually was 40mph and for 1 day and a night, instead of the 2 that was predicted. We suffered through a whole 10 minutes of power loss and lost no trees. So I am thankful for that, we were worried about severe roof damage.