When measurements are taken, the hurricane's max wind is at flight level right? Maria was a cat 5 and then a cat 4 for landfall on PR, possibly a cat 3 according to some people here going by damage. What are we going by to determine what cat x damage is? Is it the damage that occurs when flights measure cat x winds or are we going by damage on the ground/actual measured sfc winds similar to the F scale? Seems like with damage on the ground is often slightly lower than max winds measured at flight level, which would make sense. So when the average cane is measured a cat 5 at flight level it will rarely produce these winds at ground level, especially inland once winds come into contact with the friction layer.
