I'm starting to wonder if when they are telling us that this hurricane has 140 mph winds, they are actually reporting what the highest wind gust reading they can find is. It used to be that they reported the highest "sustained winds" and that is what the hurricane strength classification was based on. You can have sustained winds of 110 with gusts to 140 or even 150. Something is fishy about these recent storms. The storm that went into Texas last year was classified as a CAT 4 (130-155 mph) at landfall but the highest recorded wind "gust" was 132 mph and the highest sustained winds on the sea buoys less than a mile offshore were only in the upper 80's at landfall. Actual wind damage less that 2 miles inshore would indicate that it certainly was not a 130+mph storm. There was a trailer park that the eye wall passed over, less than 1/2 mile inshore that sustained just minimal damage. A legit CAT 4 hurricane will turn a trailer park into a scrap yard in just a minute. Same with this one, it was a CAT 4 that they said dropped to at CAT 1 at the last minute, right before landfall, even though satellite imaging shows the eye wall tightening up just prior to landfall which generally means wind and strength intensification. Highest gust recorded so far on Florence is 105 mph.

Do you think that they are intentionally overstating the strengths of these storms in the name of public safety, after what happened with Katrina, because that is really the only way to get mass numbers of people to evacuate instead of them saying "well it's just a CAT 1 or 2 and we are going to just stay here and ride it out? It is safer for both the general population and the first responders if the people do evacuate. Not making light of it because any hurricane is a bad storm, just asking the question. Thoughts???