Quote:
Originally Posted by island911
Actually, considering that the energy goes up with the square of velocity, 30-40mph difference is actually quite a big discrepancy. ...it's huge. ... E=1/2mv2
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Actually, its not as simple are that. There is the storm size as well as maximum wind speed. There is a new model which uses total energy versus maximum sustained wind speed. When IKE hit Houston, it was a CAT 2. When they ran IKE under the energy model, it was about #5 in the past century. The storm surge in IKE was much worse than is usually found in a CAT 2 storm.
Katrina wasn't that bad a storm. It was where it hit, and how vunerable that area was to the storm effects. If a Irene had stayed CAT 2 and it flooded the NY Subways, no one would be talking about Katrina anymore.
Oh, and the primary reason, other than inflation, that storms are so much more damaging, is that there is a lot more development in the coastal areas now.