Theoretical and empirical evidence are synthesized to show that underwater acoustic sensing techniques may provide a valuable tool for measuring the wind speed and determining the destructive power of a hurricane.This is done by first developing a model for the acoustic intensity and mutual intensity in an ocean waveguide due to a hurricane and then determining the relationship between local wind speed and underwater acoustic intensity. From this it is shown that it should be feasible to accurately measure the local wind speed and classify the destructive power of a hurricane with a single underwater acoustic sensor.The potential advantages and disadvantages of the proposed acoustic method are weighed against those of currently employed techniques