Actually we get lots of them every year. The thing is now, we are able to track them better compare to the past and with the dmg some have done lately, it is the new big news ticket to watch.
One woman here is so obsessive with it that she must have CNN running on her PC all the time and she joins an IRC Weather Room. Talk about a loon that must know what is going on 24/7 instead of working at your job. I shut her down real fast when she wasn't here in the day time, Mess with my computers!!
As for Global Warming...bah..not at all I feel. If you look at the track of the Hurricanes in the years, you see they come and go. Look at 1940's time line. You will see one year there were LOTS of them, more than now this year.
Look at Mengus charts and how they can be scew in a way here..
http://eq2tempest.com/index.php?showtopic=714 
