Tropical Storm Barry (2007)

The Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the deadliest in history, with some eight thousand lives claimed, packed winds in the 150-mile-per-hour range; while Andrew, in 1992, the costliest hurricane in history, with $25 billion in damages, was also officially labeled a Category 4, 155-mile-per-hour storm. Given what was coming at them on Labor Day of 1935,

According to Saffir-Simpson, those who experience a Category 5 storm, the strongest on the scale, can expect the following: “Complete roof failures on many residences and buildings. Some complete building failures. Major damage to all structures located less than fifteen feet above sea level. . . . Intensive winds continue far into inland areas.”

Even worse, the 1910 storm had slowed greatly by the time it reached shore. The effects of even a catastrophically powered hurricane such as Andrew in 1992, with its 175-mile-per-hour winds, are significantly mitigated if the storm passes over land quickly. Andrew moved ashore just above Homestead, just after midnight, at speeds of up to thirty mil

The threshold wind speed for such a storm is 155 miles per hour, and a tidal surge of eighteen feet can be expected to come ashore in advance of those winds. Only two storms of such intensity have struck the United States in the twentieth century. One was Camille, which came ashore near Biloxi, Mississippi, in 1969, with winds of approximately 175