[arrakeenrevived]

I've literally never heard "socked by a hurricane" despite living in an area where hurricanes hit the coast every year. I just did a google search for "socked by a hurricane" and there were a mere 8 results. Seems like a stretch to say this is used "all the time".

I know I'm being pedantic and it doesn't really matter that much, but I stand by my original comment that the headline phrasing was offputting to me.

[serf]

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/sock--in

it's not generally used past-tense, and it's not that common -- but i've heard it my whole life on the west coast US.

[refulgentis]

I will attempt to bridge this gap by noting that "not that common" is both true and underselling it, like, heard this 5 times in 35 years.

[bavell]

Must be a west coast thing, never heard the phrase living in the coastal southeast.

[sarlalian]

Not a west coast thing ... lived all over the west coast for almost 50 years.

[rtkwe]

Must be regional then I've heard it several times and read it many times before this article.

It's definitely much less popular than hit by but that's not shocking. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=socked+by%2Chi...