73 advance notice rates as ample time on my scale, and it was pretty clear that it would be a category 4 when it arrived on the coast.Of course, Florence was indeed much slower. We get much less advance notification for earthquakes, or even fires, for that matter.

It seems to me that too much emphasis is placed on the 1-5 wind velocity scale is predicting the consequences of a storm. It is a pretty technical distinction when a storm has velocities all of one mile per hour below cat 5, and is thus "only" a cat 4. The amount of rain fall and flooding potential seems to be at least as significant as wind velocity. Evidently, most hurricane related fatalities are due to flooding and storm surge, not wind velocity (at least on land).

I have experienced 80 mph on one occasion and that was bad enough. I can't imagine what twice that velocity would be....

Here in California, work is progressing on a system that will give advance notification of an earthquake, with advance warning times ranging from a few seconds to perhaps 15-20 minutes, depending upon distance from the epicenter. Still experimental and expected to be full of glitches, but a big improvement on the current situation.