Just was reading about the worst river flooding in 80 years. The problem East Coast vs West Coast storms is the predictability compounded by the number of people (read market for news/weather advertising) affected by the storm. NWS/NHC is a lot better than they used to be on track but it is still only really good 3 days out or so. They are not good at intensity and they know it. That leads to reports filled with worst case scenarios. The hype is not necessary and is often detrimental to planning but the reports of the range of possibilities give people time to prepare. A West coast storm moves from West to East. An East Coast storm moves from south to anywhere from West to East.