Not in response to anything specific in your post... but I think I got a small glimmering of what it was like going through the hurricane when I read an article by well-known author William Jeanes in the latest Car and Driver magazine.

He and his wife weathered the hurricane in Mississippi, in a house that had survived many previous hurricanes including Camille, a house that was 30 feet above mean sea level. They retreated to the second floor, some 11 feet above the ground floor, and watched the ground floor get washed away leaving the second floor supported by steel posts, and then watched the floor in the second storey buckling and shifting as it was battered from below by waves in a 35 MPH current that was running through what used to be their living room down below. They were sure that they were not going to live through the night.

I highly recommend reading that article.

tanstaafl.