Well if Cat level is going to be based solely on max sust windspeeed, then they probably have a good shot, especially since their model uses a very generous assumption about friction with land reducing windspeed, right on the coast, and since most all the wind measurement devices that could refute the model output broke or were downed by surge before the max winds could be recorded.

I guess this then brings into question the validity of the Cat scale if it is just going to be tied to windspeed, when pressure and surge are also possible methods of assessing intensity. Now what happens in the case that flt lvl winds do not extrapolate down to surface level as expected (i.e, dropsondes show that surface level winds are not as high as could be expected, given flt lvl windspeeds).