The scientists and meteorologists at the National Hurricane Center have ruled that Hurricane Michael was a category 5 storm.

The October 10 event destroyed much of Bay County and the surrounding panhandle of Florida dealing catastrophic damage to Tyndall Air Force Base and wiping out Mexico Beach.

In a report issued Friday morning, the National Hurricane Center wrote that the storm was directly responsible for 16 deaths, indirectly responsible for 43 deaths and $25 billion in damage. The storm was indirectly responsible for more than 40 deaths including those who came to the area to help repair the damage.

“Michael is joining a small group of Category 5 intensity hurricane landfalls in the United States,” the report states. “We note that the 5-kt increase in estimated maximum wind speed at landfall is small and well within the normal uncertainty. Additionally, these Category 5 winds were likely experienced over only a very small area at and near the coast near the landfall location, and this change in the estimated wind speed is of little practical significance in terms of the impacts associated with the storm there.”

You can read the full report here.