I don't say much but I listen to this site a lot. Here are some thoughts I'd like to share:

Folks on this site are astute sources of insight but they are not God. No one knows exactly what a storm will do.
The Hurricane center has a lot of smart people working there and they are very rarely wrong. If you listen to what they say in terms of preparedness you won't go wrong.
Even if we know exactly where the storm will go the exact effects on any given location can vary. Tornadoes get spawned. Microbursts happen. Many folks have said, "prepare for the worst". Just do it.

When a storm happens, my advice to newbies is "shut up and listen". I'll follow my own advice. Thanks for listening.