Quote:
Originally Posted by galleyfox
I don’t believe New Orleans has ever had a direct strike from Category 5 winds.
Hurricane Katrina was Category 3 when it impacted New Orleans, and Category 3 winds don’t really destroy residences that are more sturdy than a mobile home.
The Florida hurricanes you’re thinking of are Category 4 and 5. In Florida, most long-time residents don’t worry about Hurricane winds below Category 4 unless they have large trees on the property.
But wind is such a low priority in a hurricane. It’s the water that usually kills you.
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New Orleans barely had cat 1 winds from Katrina. Wind
gusts were up to 100 mph.
Urban Miami hasn't had a direct hit from a strong hurricane since 1926. Andrew hit the southern suburbs as a Category 5 in 1992 and Irma hit the Keys in 2017. In the last 20 years Katrina, Wilma and Irma had hurricane force winds/gusts in the Miami area.
Even with Andrew in 1992 which was one of the strongest ever, older homes did fine and newer modern well built homes did ok. It was those cheap 1970-1980's crap boxes that fell apart. My house I was living in as kid went through the northern eye wall of Andrew (the worst of the worst). It was a ~late 1950s ranch style house with a low roof protected by lots of foliage and suffered very little damage, just a couple of broken windows. A house at the end of our block was reduced to the foundation. Another 2-story house on our block had the 2nd story sheered off. Was anything built well in the 1970's or 80s (other than me of course)?