Several readers have sent me emails like this one:

In answer to your E-mailers query:
Actually the numbers are easy to understand.
Hurricanes tend to follow the warm water – i.e. the Gulf Stream.
Forming off the African coasts they follow the currents across the Atlantic
and then follow the currents north. They sometimes break off into the Gulf
of Mexico and Caribbean and can then go in any direction, but more often
then not they stay in the Atlantic and head north.
They will sometimes hit the mainland directly somewhere along the coast, but
more commonly stay in the stream. Thus, the states that stick out into the
Atlantic, North Carolina, New York (or more to the point – Long Island) and
the New England coastal states are more likely to be hit than those set back
like South Carolina, Georgia and New Jersey.

Me: I think the answer is more obvious — and more deeply troubling for theologians: God likes New Jersey. Truly, His ways are mysterious.