Category is to hurricane like Richter Scale is to earthquake :-) Okay, probably not exactly in the scientific sense, but a cat 3 storm has the destructive potential of maybe a 5.5 or 6 quake -- it'll take down stuff that's shoddily built or in disrepair, but well made and well maintained structures will hold up with minor to moderate damage.
A strong cat 5 storm is more like a 9 or 9.5 quake. Thank god we haven't seen one of those lately. Katrina *almost* was one - but weakened and changed course at the last minute.
Katrina was somewhere in the middle. Call it comparable to a 7.5 or 8? Does that sound remotely accurate?
And as with quakes, the storm damage spreads out from the center, getting less the further you go from landfall/epicenter -- but not always in an intuitively obvious way. Compare the structural-damage video of coastal Mississippi to that in New Orleans, and you see what I mean.
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A strong cat 5 storm is more like a 9 or 9.5 quake. Thank god we haven't seen one of those lately. Katrina *almost* was one - but weakened and changed course at the last minute.
Katrina was somewhere in the middle. Call it comparable to a 7.5 or 8? Does that sound remotely accurate?
And as with quakes, the storm damage spreads out from the center, getting less the further you go from landfall/epicenter -- but not always in an intuitively obvious way. Compare the structural-damage video of coastal Mississippi to that in New Orleans, and you see what I mean.