All hurricanes are dangerous, but some are more so than others.
The way storm surge, wind, and other factors combine determines the hurricane's destructive power. To make comparisons easier, and to make the predicted hazards of approaching hurricanes clearer to emergency forces, hurricane forecasters use a disaster-potential scale, which assigns storms to five categories. The criteria for each category are shown below. The winds are used in the determination of category. This can be used to give an estimate of the potential property damage and flooding expected along the coast with a hurricane.