re: What would've been the worst hurricane to take a direct hit from?

I guess Betsy ain't even in the discussion?

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Michael in 2018 I think is the only hurricane in my lifetime that made landfall as a 5 in the Gulf since Camille.

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I arrived in Mexico Beach about 72 hours after Michael came through. Had to pass through a National Gaurd checkpoint to even get into it. The only way I can describe what I saw would be to compare it to the pictures I’ve seen of Hiroshima after the a-bomb was dropped. It looked like a nuclear warhead had been detonated in the middle of the place.

And even before arriving there it was bad. I came into Mexico Beach from Tyndall AF Base, which it was also heavily damaged. The drive between Tyndall and Mexico. Each was about 20 min up Hwy 98. Between the two was nothing but mile after mile of pine trees. The entire way there, every tree bigger around than your forearm was snapped about 6’ to 8’ up, all laid over in the same direction like dominos. And even the more nimble saplings were leaning in that same direction.

220 MPH winds begs to differ..

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Camille was not that powerful

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It’s one of the few hurricanes to ever make landfall in the US as a CAT 5

I think it was powerful.

Dorian would have been hell on the Gulf coast if it stalled like it did over the bahamas. 36 hours of cat 5 winds.

Are we talking about making landfall at its peak strength or what? Not sure the parameters here. If that's the case then the list is longer.

Allen, Milton, wilma, etc.

I was in Ida’s eye wall the entire time went it hit, never got relief from the eye.

Hours and hours of mesovorticies. Our house was wrecked for years. Thankfully we didn’t have any insurance issues. It just took forever to fully rebuild.

Out of power for 19 days. But, considering it looked like a giant tornado ripped through our area, I was impressed at the 19 days.

The devastation I witnessed in Houma, still witness in Houma, that was a 5.

Ive work most Hurricanes on the gulf coast over the past 10 years. I was there about 10 days after delivering Equipment. Id never seen anything like that, tough to even describe. As mentioned every tree 50 miles wide snapped off from the coast to well north of I10. One logger told me he drove around to the tracts he owned and had bought to cut. Got home and called Ritchie Brothers to sell his equipment. Plan to work for a month to clean up then sell everything. RVs imploded like a crushed coke can, One was 30 foot tangled in a Broken main power line. Crazy stuff. I also worked Harvey in Rockport it was terrible, nothing like Micheal or Laura.

Laura was underrated. It was said to be 155 two more was Cat 5, what's two more miles per hour in the scheme of things. Laura was as bad as they get. It was on the same level of power, shock and awe factor as any of the legends mentioned in this Post.

Hurricanes fascinate me. Each one definitely has a personality of their own.

Craziest thing I've personally ever seen was Pine needles stuck/imbedded into the side of a pine tree, like actual needles. Unbelievable to see. They would go straight through a human. Hard to wrap your head around how that's possible.

I think you mean West. The surge was on the east side of Cameron. If she would have hit Port Arthur. LC would have potentially been under water from surge moving up the ship channel. Similar to Ike x 10. Instead the Eye went directly over LC. Johnson Bayou actually had a due North wind from Laura, thankfully