I grew up around tornadoes, they're bad but don't last long.
I think it's easy for some to forget that with a hurricane you're looking at hours of severe weather.
Make that days. We are in SWFL and the storm surge is still about 3 foot. Since we are low around the area, that is worrisome. No tides for 2 days. So far no real problems, but we know shes still there.
When Katrina ran over us is was a pup compared to now. Our winds peaked at officially 77 mph, although I doubt we were over 60 at the house. The eye center went by about 40 miles away.
Now it's a monster storm.
We rode out Alicia in Houston in the 80's. The wind screamed and whistled through the cracks in the doors and windows for hours. You could almost feel the house straining to hold together.