Herbert Saffir, 90, created hurricane rankings

MIAMI — Herbert Saffir, co-creator of the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale and a persistent advocate of strong building codes, has died. He was 90.

Mr. Saffir died of a heart attack Wednesday night at South Miami Hospital, said his son, Richard.

"He was an absolute leader in the field," said Miles Lawrence, who retired in 2005 after nearly 40 years as a forecaster at the National Hurricane Center. "He was one of the greats in terms of having an impact on the dialogue about hurricanes."

Before the scale, hurricanes were simply described as major or minor.

Mr. Saffir began developing the five-category hurricane scale during the late 1960s. He soon enlisted the assistance of Robert Simpson, then director of the hurricane center, and their system of rating the destructive capability of hurricanes on the basis of wind speed and storm surge moved into common usage during the mid-1970s.

Mr. Saffir's innovation was ranking storm destruction by type, from Category 1 — where trees and unanchored mobile homes receive the primary damage — to Category 5 — the complete failure of roofs and some structures. The five descriptions of destruction were then matched with the sustained wind speeds that would produce the corresponding damage.

Now, the scale is mentioned so frequently that a shorthand has taken hold. Category 1. Category 2. Category 5. The words "Saffir-Simpson" rarely appear in the media, a development that annoyed Mr. Saffir's relatives and associates, but he never made a big deal over it.

"Dividing hurricanes into categories was an idea whose time had come. It was a wonderful way to collapse the information into a way that was easier to understand," Lawrence said.

Simpson, 95, said the system was invaluable in helping him communicate the power of an approaching storm.

"We needed that type of thing desperately at the time," he said in a phone interview Thursday from his home in Washington, D.C.

Though best known for that scale, Mr. Saffir worked tirelessly as an advocate of fortified building standards and for tough enforcement.

Miami officials said he was instrumental in developing South Florida's post-Hurricane Andrew building code, widely viewed as the most storm-resistant in the nation.

Originally from New York, Mr. Saffir and his wife, Sarah, moved to Miami just in time for the September 1947 hurricane and for another a month later.

His original aim was to design bridges, and he has about 50 to his credit. But hurricane protection was his passion.

Mr. Saffir traveled to inspect storm damage, producing reports on the performance of structures during 2005's Hurricane Katrina.

Despite devoting much of his life to thinking about and preparing buildings for hurricanes, Mr. Saffir acknowledged this year that his own home was not completely protected with hurricane shutters. He had done studies on the glass in the windows and found it was relatively shatterproof, he said, adding, "I confess I only have partial shutters."

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.