As a category 5 hurricane. Felix came ashore near the Nicaragua/Honduras border early this morning, before sunrise, with maximum sustained winds of 160mph. Thankfully it hit a sparsly populated area, but loss of life from such a storm is still almost a given. As strange as it might seem, it is relatively rare for hurricanes to hit land as category 5 hurricanes. Most hurricanes go through deintensification right before landfall, sometimes quite significantly. This happened with Katrina. No, Katrina was not a category 5 when it missed New Orleans and hit Alabama. It wasn’t a category 4 either, but rather a moderatly strong category 3.
Although the US, and especially the Gulf coast states, should breath a sigh of relief that another catastrophic hurricane missed them (Dean being the first, not Katrina) I would never wish a hurricane on anyone else, unlike some people. I was watching Good Morning America on Monday morning, as the woman anchor (not sure of the name) interviewed Max Mayfield (director of NOAA’s Tropical Prediction Center-National Hurricane Center) and questioned him about the posibility of Felix hitting the US. After Max quelled her neurotic fear by telling her there was almost no chance of Felix coming towards the US, she breathed a sigh of relief and made some heartless comment that left one thinking that either Central America is populated only by cockroaches and termites or that those class of people who do live there are no better than cockroaches or termites. Disgusting.
Two category 5 hurricanes have come, hit land, and gone. Hurricane fatigue and bordom may start setting in, but all concerned people should shake it off, for another one may be brewing in the Atlantic.
