13 Action News goes to the wind tunnel at Vegas Indoor Skydiving to give you a glimpse of what's it's like to try to weather unforgiving wind.
In a category 1 hurricane, wind speeds are at least 74 miles per hour. You can't hear anchor/reporter Christopher King speak above the roar of the wind.
At category 3, the wind reaches at least 111 miles per hour. King can barely keep his footing. Manager and chief instructor Rob Grills braces the reporter to keep him from taking off.
Grills lets the wind carry him into the air. By now, it's about 120 miles per hour in the tunnel.
Irma, at its peak, was a category 5 hurricane, bulldozing through the Caribbean with the force of more than 157 miles-an-hour.
Grills and King are in a safe, controlled environment with consistent wind. Imagine trying to survive outdoors in a hurricane with wind blasting you from almost any direction.
“Wouldn't be out there in those winds if I had a choice," said Grills. “Walking your dog or something like that outside or anything you're carrying could be caught by the wind and just blown away."
Carly Roberts, who heads up marketing and business development with Vegas Indoor Skydiving, said wind that powerful could be deadly.
"Extremely dangerous," she said. "It's absolutely catastrophic."
