by Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse Blog
Hurricane Laura has become one of the most powerful hurricanes that we have ever seen in the Gulf of Mexico. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, it was a category 3 storm with maximum winds of 125 mph. As I write this article, Hurricane Laura is a category 4 storm with maximum winds of 150 mph. Experts are using phrases such as “full beast mode” and “unsurvivable storm surge” to describe what coastal communities are facing, and many of those that refused to evacuate may not survive. And at this hour we are being told that Laura may get even stronger before it finally makes landfall. In fact, National Weather Service meteorologist Donald Jones says that Laura is “probably” going to become a category 5 storm…
The storm’s maximum sustained winds have reached 150 mph, a “chilling” development, according to the hurricane center. That’s 7 mph away from being a Category 5 storm, according to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.