Lysis -- the strongest wind speeds are generally found on the side of the storm going with its motion, so that theory is pretty sound. Think of the storm's winds and the motion of the storm as two vectors; the actual wind is the vector sum of those two. Generally it's not such a big deal when the storm is moving slowly in the tropics, but when it is moving 50mph, it does play a role. And that's an interesting story...my how things have changed!

Rabbit -- if it was a Cat. 5, I think they've would've mentioned it in the forecast discussion or will in the preliminary report. Remember, 155mph is still category 4 -- it takes 156+ for cat. 5. Not sure we'll see something that strong in the preliminary report, however.

nl -- the wave behind Emily as the potential to become a depression, maybe even a storm, along the lines that HF mentions a few posts before me, but it's not there yet.