I think this storm will be the impetus for recategorizing storms.

Katrina was so large that it didn't matter that she weakened to a Cat 4 before landing. I think the sheer size may have helped increase the height of the storm surge beyond what was anticipated.

I keep hearing reports that say, "This is where the eye of Katrina landed." I don't think half those newscasters even understand that she was so large that the eye actually landed...everywhere. It is hard to go from our set mental image of the size of the eye and its effects that we've seen from all the previous hurricanes in our lifetimes, and then look at this one. It just can't be seen in the same way.

The eyewall upon landing curved all along the entire east shoreline of LA from south of NO up to Slidell, and around to the entire MS coastline right up to the Biloxi/Gulfport area. All those areas were hit at once as the large eye neatly slid into a position that happened to approxmiate 60 miles of coastline. But because of the strong NE quad, the effects on the the 40 mi of coastline to the east of Biloxi, approximately up to Mobile Bay area, also suffered the same catastrophic events and a storm surge nearly as high as the coast that was hit by the eye. Ocean Springs, just to the right of the NE eyewall, suffered damage as extreme as Biloxi.

The second effect relating to the size of Katrina is that she went the entire 15 rounds and then some. Because of her large size, even going at a good clip she produced significant winds over a more than 24-hour period. For those on the coast, the storm went on and on and on. And I think that the intensity of damage needs to be related to the duration of the storm as well as the highest wind speed.

Once the hurricane force winds came ashore in Pascagoula, it wasn't long before roofs came off of buildings, including the Jackson Co EOC; maybe about a half hour. But those winds didn't abate. They increased, and stayed over 90mph for I believe 4-5 more hours. That has to become a factor in damage categorization. All Cat 4 storms produce devastating damage, but this one produced it on a larger scale simply because of its size.