Georges was not a Cat 3 in the Gulf. That high wind gust reported by Biloxi was in error, as is mentioned in the official Georges report:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/1998georges.html
"At 0755 UTC, KBIX reported wind gusts of 109 knots, and 149 knots at 0855 UTC 28 September. The latter value is considered to be invalid based on the following: 1) DOW dual doppler maximum wind measurements made at the same time at KBIX were near 107 knots (considered a 2-5 second gust); 2) the anemometer at KBIX is a hot-wire anemometer which has been shown to be prone to major errors in heavy rain, e.g., the erroneous 205 knot wind gust in Typhoon Paka (Hagemeyer, 1998); 3) USAFR dropwindsonde data from the same time period measured a peak wind of 101 knots at 920 mb. An Texas Instrument WR25 anemometer, operated by Mississippi Power and Light one mile north of the beach in Biloxi, measured a wind gust of 102 knots."
So, Georges was only a Cat 2 in the Gulf and at landfall.
As to an increasing number of major hurricanes in the Atlantic basin, we've never seen as many major storms in any other 9-year period as from 1995-2003. A good reason for this increased activity is the strong thermohaline circulation that has set up as of 1995. This enhanced circulation leads to warmer-than-normal SSTs across the Atlantic. Chris Landsea has found that the Atlantic goes through periods of above-normal and below-normal SST regimes due to a periodic (30-50 year cycle) change in the thermohaline circulation:
1900-1925: cold cycle
1926-1969: warm cycle
1970-1994: cold cycle
1995-2003+: warm cycle
History tells us that the actual NUMBER of storms doesn't necessarily increase during these warm cycles, but what storms DO develop have a much better chance of becoming major hurricanes when the Atlantic is warmer.
As for landfalls related to SST regimes, Florida is most affected. During the last cold regime (1970-1994), Florida was hit by 1 major hurricane every 10 years. However, during the previous warm regime lasting from 1926-1969, Florida was hit by a major hurricane about every 2.5 years. There's a lesser relationship along the Gulf and U.S. east coast. Florida has been very lucky that a persistent east coast "guardian trof" has deflected a number of major hurricanes northward since 1995. But that trof is now gone.
The current enhanced thermohaline circulation may last 2-4 decades, meaning enhanced major hurricane activity for quite a number of years to come. When these major hurricanes start hitting, I think a number of insurance companies are going to go broke. Several did back in 1992 when Andrew hit. But if a major city is hit now, it's going to be a huge disaster.
A year later Bret was a category 4, and hit Texas as a weakened category 3 of 125 mph. 2 years later Isidore almost reached category 4 north of the YP, but it's tiny loop over land saved us. I think that if it had done that loop over water it would have been the big one for New Orleans. Then, Lili a week later. A category 4 that weakened to a 100 mph category 2 by landfall in Louisiana. What I've concluded is:
