Originally published Saturday, November 24, 2007 at 12:00 AM
Obituary
Herbert Saffir, 90, created hurricane rankings
Herbert Saffir, co-creator of the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale and a persistent advocate of strong building codes, has died. He was 90 90...
The Miami Herald
The scale
The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale is determined by wind speed and storm surge.Category 1: Winds 74-95 mph. Storm surge 4 to 5 feet above normal. Damage primarily to unanchored mobile homes, shrubbery and trees. Some damage to poorly constructed signs and piers.
Category 2: Winds 96-110 mph. Storm surge 6 to 8 feet above normal. Some roof, door and window damage to buildings. Considerable damage to mobile homes, small watercraft, trees, poorly constructed signs and piers. Flooding of coastal and low-lying areas.
Category 3: Winds 111-130 mph. Storm surge 9 to 12 feet above normal. Some structural damage to small homes. Mobile homes destroyed and large trees blown down. Coastal flooding destroys smaller structures, and floating debris damages larger structures. Terrain lower than 5 feet above sea level may flood as far as 8 miles inland.
Category 4: Winds 131-155 mph. Storm surge 13 to 18 feet above normal. Wall failures and roof collapses on small homes, and extensive damage to doors and windows. Complete destruction of some homes, especially mobile homes. Major coastal flooding damage.
Category 5: Winds greater than 155 mph. Storm surge greater than 18 feet above normal. Complete roof failure on many homes and industrial buildings. Smaller buildings and mobile homes blown over or blown away. Major damage to lower floors of all structures less than 15 feet above sea level and within 500 yards of the shoreline. Massive evacuation of residential areas on low ground within 5 to 10 miles inland may be required.
Source: National Hurricane Center
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.
Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company
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