Creator of the Hurricane Category System Herbert Saffir Dies
Engineer Herbert Saffir, who created the five-category system used to describe hurricane strengths, died last week at the age of 90. Herbert created the scale in 1969. The scale was the first ever system that was able to determine the level of damage that could be expected by an approaching hurricane. It has been used to warn millions of people of impending storms and damages ever since.
Herbert Saffir was born in New York in 1917. He had a degree in civil engineering from Georgia Tech and served in World War II. After the war, Herbert became a county engineer in South Florida. It was here that he took an interest in hurricanes, since they frequently disrupted the area. He began working on the intensity scale in 1969 as part of a United Nations project. His work evolved into an internal five point scale used by government and internal storm watchers but was quickly adopted by the general public. Since his notoriety, he continued to work as a structural engineer and even produced reports on structures during Hurricane Katrina.
Herbert died due to complications in surgery. You can read a terrific interview with Herbert Saffir from 2001 on the Novalynx.com site. It can provide some good information about this extraordinary man’s life and intelligence.