I’m curious what the guidelines would be as a preparation for the potential of a new category. Like leave the area? I know changing how we do things now on a global scale should help, but in case and due to cynicism, it might not help. But what should people do for the seemingly inevitable storms?
Physical fitness helps. I'm just as guilty as many of my fellow Americans when it comes to letting the numbers on my bathroom scale creep up over the years so won't be sitting here preaching routines and stuff. Some stretching and general work on flexibility should go a long way though.
Everyone's starting point will be different but with some persistence and dedication to a steady routine, results will start showing before you know it. Once the storm hits, you'll be much more capable of bending over to kiss your ass goodbye.
Mostly a joke with some elements of truth. If you're getting turbofucked by nature's fury, being able to move on foot for long distances when needed puts you in a better position than someone who is less able. From a response resource point of view, people who can escape the immediate danger on foot free up vehicles and rescue personnel for others with mobility issues.
Seriously though....the old saying "Run from water, hide from wind" still applies. At that strength, a Cat 6 is like a 20+ mile wide tornado. So, a lot of hiding if you're anywhere near. And if you're in the direct path there is little you can do.
Your question gets to the heart of why it's not important to add another category. Once you get a truly monster storm, a lot more factors come into play as to how dangerous it is than just wind speed. There's not a single band aid solution.
North east coast of Australia gets hit with category 5 cyclones every 5 to 10 years or so, there are plenty of buildings that survive that.
Parents copped the brunt of Cyclone Yasi with 180 mph gusts, only damage to their house was they lost a section of guttering, it was peeled off never to be seen again.
Building standards there are rigorous. They built their house themselves (in a rural area, 180 acre farms), its engineering design was required to withstand wind loadings of at least 70m/s (160mph) .
It is a steel-framed, single story kit home, on a steel piling foundation about 3 feet off the ground. The local building inspector also told them to put long threaded rods from the roofing trusses to the subfloor and the foundations while building it and tension them up, they eventually put in 36. This effectively ties the roof to the foundation and stops it peeling off, once your roof comes off the rest of the house usually folds up like an open cardboard box.
Apart from losing the section of guttering, there was no other damage to the house. They boarded up the larger glass sliding doors and were somewhat alarmed at the amount of flex on the glass as the cyclone passed, but they held up ok. They didn't get power back for two weeks , which was the worst of it for them as it's very humid afterwards, they had a generator and ran it in the evening to power the aircon in their bedroom each night until it ran out of fuel.
Possibly? Our building techniques have improved since the scale was originally finalized so it may make sense to have a category for our truly hardened structures.
Floridian here. Anything over a cat3 heading your way is cause to GTFO immediately or seek shelter in an evacuation shelter (usually sturdy public buildings like schools). You can usually weather the storm if it's cat 1 or 2 and you're well prepared and don't live in a flood zone(even then there's room for exercising your discretion). same goes for 3 but at that point I'm tracking the storms path to see if we're gonna get a direct hit or not. If it's on the low end of 3 and we're only getting the outer bands I'll stick it out. If it's looking like a direct hit I'll leave. Never been hit by a cat 4 or 5 and have no intention of being around when they come knocking. A cat 6 would be "if you're still around you're a fucking idiot" level of storm.
I did stick around for irma or Michael a few years back but only because by the time they were near me they were going to be significantly weaker than when they made landfall
Well categories 4 and 5 already recommend evacuation for everyone in the path. There isn't a viable response more extreme than that we're capable of. Perhaps evacuate sooner? But we have a lot of trouble predicting hurricane movements, especially as they approach land.
It kind of triggers the mind with new state input. So more psychological. But it's understandable, as a new category can encompass not just wind speed, but whater dropped, storm surge, and other factors that are amplified in Cat5 in a higher carbon atmosphere.