first time post, and jumping into this late...
TIME, another parameter to consider if you want to wrap your hands around damage potential.
How long will a single story cinder block structure in Florida with a plywood roof and twenty year old shingles hold up to 120MHP sustained winds? 2 hours, 5 hours, 10 hours? I do not know, but I am darn glad Hurricane Charley, with it's mid level Cat2 winds, did not take it's time passing over my my house in Orlando.

This is just simple anecdotal testimony, but if Charley had taken three or four hours to make it's way past my home, I do not know if the place would have made it. As it is, my fifteen year old house and it's original roof was breached in the hour or so that Charley was in the neighborhood.

No we do not want to get into your house vs. my house and how it was constructed... Mine does appear to be pretty well built, better than other homes that I have had.

These storms are very gusty. Time can be a factor. I had one tree that defiantly stood up to Charley and survived easily, the rest were not so lucky. Hurricane Jeanne was on the low end of Cat1 here, but it lasted all day. That one tree almost went down. The roof over my garage was breached by Jeanne, even though it survived Charley just fine.

Does the duration of the storm also affect how long a storm surge stays ashore? Or how far it might go inland (of course topology is also a factor) .

The morning after Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast, water was still trying to find it's way back to the GOM in Biloxi. Big surge, big wind, long duration storm. What a mess.

Time is another parameter.