Clark: I echo your sentiments. The NHC did an outstanding job on forecasting the track of this storm. I just went over to the NHC archives and pulled up their 5 day forecast graphics.

In Advisory #6 (July 6, 2005 5am EDT), they literally had the marker sitting RIGHT on top of the final true landfall spot. No kidding - go pull up the chart and see if you don't believe me. The only thing they had wrong about it was the landfall time - they had predicted 2am Monday. Keep in mind that was 105 hours out.

ALSO...keep in mind the storm's location at the time of that forecast was due south of the Dominican Republic. That was a fantastically accurate prediction, all things concerned. And by Advisory #17 (July 8, 5pm EDT...45 hours out) they had nailed landfall at roughly 230pm Sunday.

I'm sorry, but for this isolated case, the NHC could not have better predicted the storm. My heart goes out to any who may have suffered losses from this horrific storm, but I do add one footnote for what its worth: the NHC knew where this storm was going, and did a great job of warning people. If there were those who, despite reason and sense decided to stay put on the beach in the path of the storm....well, I'll still be sympathetic to their plight, but I'll also think in my mind it could have been avoided.

Again, kudos to the NHC for an excellent forecasting job...