You raise a fair point, but for this system, they simply could have put in a disclaimer, something along the lines of "THIS SYSTEM IS FORECAST TO MOVE NE AND IS NOT EXPECTED TO AFFECT ANY LANDMASS".

I believe Ed will be explaining it from a pro's point of view, so keep tuned.

Speaking of Floyd, I remember that one vividly. I believe it was a CAT IV brutalizing the Bahamas and headed for Florida when the decision to evac was given (and if I'm not mistaken, that was the largest peace time evac in US history). Cantore was all poised to bring the best footage since Andrew and then all of a sudden Floyd made a hard right and headed towards Hattaras, and eventually, me. Well, ol' Jim got on the first plane outta there, but since Seidel and Kenealy had already staked out their spots in NC, JC headed up to Point Lookout, about 9 miles south of me. So I got to meet the great Jim Cantore!

Sorry for the story (some of y'all have heard it before), but the point being that NHC may have "goofed" on Floyd, but it's quite a bit different to make the decision to order evac for a CAT IV storm 24-36 hours away from the US mainland (and on a direct path, no less), than to "classify" a storm whose Dvorak #'s certainly were of TD status.

It's probably in some part due to money, but when you're talking peoples' lives, it's probably better to be safe than sorry.

This (98L) would have affected neither.