Understanding hurricane category

In watching all those weather reports I assume you have already heard the anchorman uttering the term "category 1..2..." or whatever category the hurricane is. But do you really understand what it means or have an idea how they categorize such weather disturbance? Or do you just base in on 5 being the strongest and 1 being the weakest? Partly you're right, but there's more explanation than that.

There are five categories followed in the present hurricane scale. They use it to measure a hurricane's intensity to give an estimate of the potential property damage and flooding expected along the coast from a hurricane landfall. Wind speed is the main determining factor in the scale, as storm surge values are highly dependent on the slope of the continental shelf in the landfall region.

A Catergory 1 hurricane has strong winds ranging 74-95 mph (64-82 kt or 119-153 km/hr). Minimal damage is expected from such hurricane. Category 2 has winds of 96-110 mph (83-95 kt or 154-177 km/hr). Moderate damage to trees, mobile homes, poorly constructed signs, and piers are expected. Category 3 indicates extensive winds of 111-130 mph (96-113 kt or 178-209 km/hr) and anticipates some structural damage to small residences and utility buildings with a minor amount of curtainwall failures. Category 4 storm has strong winds of 131-155 mph (114-135 kt or 210-249 km/hr). There's usually complete destruction of mobile homes and extensive damage to doors and windows. Massive evacuation is conducted to residents of terrain lower than 10 feet above sea level due to flooding. Finally, a catastrophic Category 5 hurricane has winds greater than 155 mph (135 kt or 249 km/hr) causes complete roof failure on many residences and industrial buildings and a massive evacuation of residential areas on low ground within 5-10 miles (8-16 km) of the shoreline may be required.