That is true. I'm not a meteorologist, but when you have Gulf water at 87-88 degrees, storms have plenty of fuel to get them ramped up. Once these storms clear Cuba and start heading north through the Gulf, look out. We saw that happen with Michael two years ago, and now with Laura.
The people who work at the National Hurricane Center are trained professionals, and they typically do a great job forecasting these storms. So I don't want to be too critical, but I can't help thinking that there should have been a bit more warning to coastal areas in LA and east TX that this storm was going to be BIG (like Cat. 4+). If you are going to need to evacuate an area, it really helps to have at least 48 hours notice or so, because people cannot just pick up and leave on short notice. In this case, I don't think a lot of people had that long, because NHC was a bit slow to warn people that this storm was going to be as catastrophic as it will ultimately turn out to be. I personally think things have changed in recent years, with the extreme warm water we are seeing in the Gulf in August/Sept (and even in the Atlantic, near Florida), which seems to be setting the stage for more of these Cat 4/5 monster storms. Hurricane Dorian last year was absolutely catastrophic for the N. Bahama Islands, and that monster was a Cat 5, bordering on Cat 6 (which doesn't even exist currently). Somehow we are going to have to get even better at projecting the intensity of these storms, so that people in their path have adequate time to get out before they arrive. I realize that some people will not evacuate regardless how much notice you give them, but I do feel badly for anyone that would have evacuated, but was unable to because they did not have enough time, and did not realize how huge of a storm was coming at them.