I was watching pretty close as Maria came ashore. Winds in the eyewall did cross the Cat-5/Cat-4 boundary as the eyewall began edging onto land, but thex real dissipation came with the ERC. She was perking along at 170, maybe 175 mph, sustained, until an hour or two before the weird eye stuff started happening, and was down to 160 with pressure still dropping, when the outer eyewall had established dominance, and was still an hour out.
Seen her recently? Incredibly intact given the last 20 hours, perking along, pressure dropping again. Sheeesh.
Some of the videos on YouTube are just beyond belief.