CATEGORY 5

The urge to hunker down, and sometimes get together, is both psychological and circumstantial.

It didn't take long for Hurricane Ian to unleash its wrath on Florida's power grids.

Hurricane Ian is currently hitting the Gulf Coast of Florida after strengthening to a Category 4 storm before making landfall, possibly near Port Charlotte.

Such massive storms are fairly rare, and it's even more rare for them to make landfall. NOAA says that for such storms, "catastrophic damage will occur" with electricity outages "for weeks or months."

There are many ways to categorize a hurricane. The storm’s central pressure is one way. The height of its storm surge is another. How much rain it drops is another. And, of course, the strength of its wind is another. But what causes a hurricane to strengthen or weaken? The answer is simple enough, but multifaceted.

A Category 5 hurricane has winds of 157 mph or higher. These are the only four hurricanes in the history of the U.S. that have made landfall at that level.

A Category 5 hurricane has winds of 157 mph or higher. These are the only four hurricanes in the history of the U.S. that have made landfall at that level.

Hurricane Ian rapidly intensified off Florida's southwest coast Wednesday morning, gaining top winds of 155 mph, just short of the most-dangerous Category 5 status.

In ominous tones, a documentary narrator describes the devastation wrought on the Tampa Bay, Fla. area by “Phoenix,” a tropical storm that grew into a Category 5 hurricane. Phoenix was imaginary, part of a 2009 government preparation exercise for a killer hurricane dubbed Project Phoenix — an exercise updated in 2020 focusing on small business recovery. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Florida Department of Emergency Management sponsored the 2009 simulation to identify gaps in local emergency planning and figure out responses across jurisdictions, Randy Deshazo, Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council chief of staff, said Tuesday in an email.

A Category 5 storm in Tampa Bay could produce a 26-foot flood and kill up to 2,000 people, according to Vox.

Five years on, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are still rebuilding and repairing after hurricanes Irma and Maria.

Nolan Williams Jr. and Nikkole Salter’s story of a contentious family gathering makes its uneven debut at Ford's Theatre.

This particular area of the Florida Panhandle was still recovering from destruction caused by a Category 5 hurricane more than three years ago.

This particular area of the Florida Panhandle was still recovering from destruction caused by a Category 5 hurricane more than three years ago.

Volunteer rescuers are taking care of cats, cows and other animals they managed to save after Indonesia's Mount Semeru erupted earlier this month.

Police say 13-year-old Nyssa Brown's body was found on Dec. 16, nearly a week after Friday's EF-3 tornado. Her mother, father, grandmother and three siblings also lost their lives due to the storm.

A National Weather Service high wind warning covered an area stretching from New Mexico to upper Michigan as powerful storms and reported tornadoes swept across the Midwest and Plains. (Dec. 16)

Ida hit Louisiana with faster winds than Katrina, but a hurricane's category number is just part of what makes each storm unique — and uniquely destructive.

Clouds gather over Playa Gaviota Azul as Tropical Storm Zeta approaches Cancun, Mexico, early Monday morning, Oct. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Victor Ruiz Garcia)MIAMI – Hurricane Zeta lashed Mexico's Caribbean coast resorts around Tulum with high winds and rain Monday night as it headed toward the Yucatan Peninsula and then a possible landfall on the central U.S. Gulf Coast at midweek. It was the second time this month that boat captain Francisco Sosa Rosado had to perform the same maneuver, after Hurricane Delta hit the resort in early October. Trees felled by Hurricane Delta barely three weeks earlier still littered parts of Cancun, stacked along roadsides and in parks. There was also a Tropical Storm Zeta in 2005, but that year had 28 storms because meteorologists later went back and found they missed one, which then became an “unnamed named storm."

Bahamas going solar to protect power grid from future hurricanes A tiny country in "Hurricane Alley" is trying to be an example to the world after Category 5 storms demolished parts of its electrical grid. Bill Whitaker reports on the Bahamas' adoption of solar energy.

Its prime minister has embraced solar power not just as a necessity, but to show the rest of the world how to confront climate change. Prime Minister Hubert Minnis addressed climate change forcefully after Hurricane Irma, another Category 5, struck part of his country in 2017. Ragged Island in the Southern Bahamas was so decimated it would be incredibly hard to rebuild. The new system is not only hurricane-resistant but reduces the country's carbon footprint, further lessening its already minuscule contribution to climate change. "First World nations make the greatest contribution to climate change," Minnis said.

On this day in 1988, Hurricane Gilbert destroyed much of Jamaica. It would later become a Category 5 storm and bring rain and tornadoes to South Texas.

Royal Bahamas Defense Force officers examine maps before departing for devastated Abaco Island on Sept. 4, 2019, in Nassau, the Bahamas. A massive rescue effort is underway after Hurricane Dorian spent more than a day parked over the Bahamas, killing at least seven as entire communities were flattened, roads washed out and hospitals and airports swamped by several feet of water, according to published reports. Hide Caption

NOAA's forecast for the path of Hurricane Dorian as of Monday, September 2 at 4 a.m. WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Hurricane Dorian has killed five people in the Abaco Islands, Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said Monday. The storm wiped out power to Nassau and the rest of New Providence, the country's most populous island, Bahamas Power and Light said. "It's just an absolutely devastating, life-threatening situation," said Ken Graham, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. How Dorian could pummel the USAfter Dorian leaves the Bahamas, it threatens to turn its destructive force on the US Southeast.

Hurricane Dorian slammed into the Bahamas Sunday night, unleashing ferocious winds and rain, destroying buildings and killing a 7-year-old boy. As it barreled towards the islands on Sunday, a NOAA aircraft flew inside the eye of the storm. Video revealed a huge bank of white clouds inside the Category 5 hurricane. INSIDE THE EYE OF HURRICANE DORIAN - #NOAA42 Kermit flies through Category 5 Hurricane #Dorian on 09/01/19 morning mission (credit: Ian Sears, NOAA). "We are facing a hurricane that we have never seen in The Bahamas," Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis wrote on Twitter Sunday.

Simply known as the Labor Day Storm, the 1935 hurricane was the strongest Atlantic hurricane to ever make landfall and the first designated Category 5 hurricane to ever touch the United States. The storm hit the Florida Keys on September 2KEY WEST, Fla. - We don't know yet what will happen as Hurricane Dorian approaches Florida's east coast this weekend, but its timing coincides with another Labor Day hurricane that rocked south Florida in 1935. Simply known as the Labor Day Storm, the 1935 hurricane was the strongest Atlantic hurricane to ever make landfall and the first designated Category 5 hurricane to ever touch the United States. The storm hit the Florida Keys on September 2 with peak winds of 200 mph. Dorian is expected to strengthen to at least a Category 1 storm over Labor Day weekend and could possibly reach Category 3 strength before all is said and done.

Hurricane Barbara was pushing across the Pacific as a powerful Category 4 storm Wednesday, but it was very far from land. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the storm had maximum sustained winds of 145 mph early Wednesday. Barbara may have reached its peak intensity overnight, when its maximum sustained winds were 155 mph, just under the 157 mph threshold for a Category 5 storm. The storm was located about 1,925 miles east of Hilo, Hawaii, and was moving west-northwest at 10 mph. Barbara was forecast to weaken to a tropical storm Friday.

Hurricane Barbara was pushing across the Pacific as a powerful Category 4 storm Wednesday, but it was very far from land. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the storm had maximum sustained winds of 145 mph early Wednesday. Barbara may have reached its peak intensity overnight, when its maximum sustained winds were 155 mph, just under the 157 mph threshold for a Category 5 storm. The storm was located about 1,925 miles east of Hilo, Hawaii, and was moving west-northwest at 10 mph. Barbara was forecast to weaken to a tropical storm Friday.