Hurricane Katrina made landfall near New Orleans in August 2005 as a Category 3 and was at the time the strongest and most destructive hurricane to hit the US, killing around 1,300 people.
However, before landfall and just like Helene only two weeks ago, Katrina was a more powerful Category 5 hurricane in the hours before landfall.
While Katrina, Helene and now Milton have taken different paths and making landfall in different areas, there is one big similarity.
They all underwent rapid intensification in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and headed towards the US coast.
If atmospheric conditions are right, with sea surfaces temperatures higher than 27 Celsius, tropical cyclones here can develop quickly.
Over the last month the Gulf of Mexico has had record heat content with sea surface temperatures at 29-31C.
This is like rocket fuel for hurricanes, supercharging them into the Category 5 storms Helene and Milton became.
A Noaa database, external shows that at least 40 storms in the Atlantic have reached Category 5 status since 1924, though only four have actually hit land at that strength. Here are some of the most damaging:
Camille crashed into Mississippi in 1969, producing a peak storm surge of 24ft (7.3m) and destroying almost everything along the coast.
It killed 259 people, most of them in Virginia, and caused about $1.4bn in damage.
Andrew decimated southern Florida in 1992 with sustained wind speeds of up to 165mph (266km/h) and gusts as high as 174mph (280km/h).
It claimed 26 lives directly and was blamed for dozens of other deaths. After causing $30bn in damage, it was considered the costliest natural disaster in US history at the time.
Michael slammed into Florida in 2018 with 160mph (260km/h) wind speeds and was the strongest storm to make landfall in the Sunshine State.
At least 74 deaths were attributed to the storm – 59 in the US and 15 in Central America – and Michael caused an estimated $25.1bn in damage.
