You said Category 5 storms were commonplace. They are not!!

Three within one hundred years does not make them commonplace.

They had to make it a Category 5 to insure that the levee broke whether they tampered with it or not as it was only built to withstand a Category 3 hurricane.

Again, the Navy ship Batton was in the Gulf for weeks before the Hurricane.

The Hurricane went through parts of Florida as a Category 1 and by the time it made landfall it was a four or five.

How far did it travel? What circumstances provided it such strength?

A fluke of nature??

A man-made disaster just in time???