Eduardo causes destruction in miniseries ‘Category 7’

You know Katrina and Wilma. Do you know Julia and Eve?

Probably not, because – like many phony storms before them – they were fictionally forecast for TV.

Last June, three months before Katrina struck, the obscure FX original movie “Oil Storm” ominously told of fake Hurricane Julia ravaging Louisiana and disrupting the oil market.

Later, weeks after Katrina, the alien-filled Hurricane Eve hit ABC’s sci-fi drama series “Invasion.”

Now, meet Hurricane Eduardo, star of the CBS miniseries “Category 7: The End of the World,” premiering Sunday.

Stormy weather has long been made-for-TV movie fodder – usually with a hunky, young, wind-whipped actor in the lead. (See: Patrick Duffy in 1974’s “Hurricane,” Luke Perry in 1998’s “Storm Tracker” or Mark-Paul Gosselaar in 2002’s “Atomic Twister.”)

In “Category 7,” it’s “Showgirls” star Gina Gershon running for her life as FEMA’s newly appointed director. In the movie, the Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, Mt. Rushmore, the Egyptian Pyramids and Mall of America are all destroyed by ominous storms – and that’s just in the first installment.

As far back as William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” hurricanes have been used as an entertaining storytelling device – not to mention an all-powerful nickname.

There was a famous black boxer named Rubin “Hurricane” Carter (who Denzel Washington portrayed in the 2000 biopic “The Hurricane”) and a professional wrestler named Shane “The Hurricane” Helms (who you can read more about here: http://asap.ap.org/stories/132947.s)

While real hurricane coverage is still swarming the cable news networks and recent documentaries from Court TV and the National Geographic Channel, fictionalized hurricanes have been gaining momentum despite this year’s real-life stormy weather.

“Hurricanes are large, dangerous, and mostly slow moving,” said Neal Dorst, a meteorologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “All of these are elements that make for dramatic story tension.

“You have many people over a wide geographic area being put in peril. But there is time to flee or stay, making for life-and-death decisions. And what’s meat for the newsman is also meat for the novelist.”

“Category 7” – the sequel to last year’s miniseries “Category 6: Day of Destruction” – was conceived more than a year ago and filmed last July.

Even after the recent visits from Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Wilma and the first part of the Greek alphabet, Executive Producer Robert Sertner said the only thing he shied away from was using real-life footage.

“This is not meant to be any sort of take on real-life tragedies. This is meant to be ‘Independence Day’ for television.”

The majority of the “Category 7” storms are computer-generated, but some images are all too familiar.

In one scene, a poncho-clad reporter appears to be blown away. Another shows evacuees boarding buses to safety.

And FEMA power struggles provide much of the drama. (“If we get hit by a second weather disaster, we’re gonna need a FEMA to look after FEMA,” one character shrieks.)

“The lines between news and entertainment have blurred so much in the past couple of years when you have reporters standing out in the weather being blown away and the camera just stays there and you have embedded cameras on every street corner,” said Sertner.

“People are fascinated with that live feel. It’s silly for us not to try and copy it.”