New 'Potential Storm Surge Flooding Map' aims to prevent deaths during hurricane season
In an attempt to prevent people from dying in a storm surge, the National Hurricane Center developed a Potential Storm Surge Flooding Map.
The map will be issued when a hurricane watch is issued, and perhaps even when a tropical storm watch is issued.
It will be updated every six hours about 45 minutes after each full advisory.
The NHC interviewed meteorologists along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts to get input on how to best display important flood potential information.
I was one of the meteorologists interviewed.
The graphic will show where there is the potential for storm surge flooding and how high the water will rise.
We’ve always known that hurricane winds can kill. Look at Andrew. It devastated south Florida with wind gusts of 177 mph, flattening Homestead, Fla., on Aug. 24, 1992. In all, 63,000 homes were destroyed.
More than 1 million people evacuated before the hurricane arrived, and that likely saved a lot of lives. In all, 44 people died in Florida as a result of Andrew.
Hurricane Ike was “just a Category 2” with winds of 110 mph when it made landfall near Galveston, Texas, Sept. 13, 2008.
The problem is that it was a big hurricane and caused a big storm surge. The surge was 12 feet along the Bolivar Peninsula, and a total of 112 people died in the U.S. -- 23 of them were never found.
Hurricane Katrina was a Category 3 hurricane with winds of 127 mph when it hit Buras, La.
The problem, of course, is that it was a very large hurricane with strong winds stretching across 400 miles. Katrina created a devastating storm surge -- 27 feet high -- resulting in the failure of levees across southeast Louisiana and a mass of water that traveled 6 miles inland along the Mississippi Coast. Eighty percent of New Orleans flooded and it took 43 days to remove the water. Over 1,800 people died.
Hurricane Sandy was the largest hurricane on record with a diameter of over 1,000 miles. Sandy was not officially a hurricane when it made landfall Oct. 29, 2012, along the coast of New Jersey, but Sandy still created a 14 1/2-foot storm surge at Bergen Point, N.J. Battery Park in New York City had a 13.88-foot storm surge, flooding seven subway tunnels. One hundred sixty people died as a result of Sandy.
Jamie Rhone, a National Hurricane Center storm surge specialist, said water is the No. 1 killer in hurricanes. There is storm surge, fresh water flooding, inland flooding or rain-induced flooding -- and of the four, storm surge is the No. 1 killer.
Rhone said it’s just not possible to survive a peak storm surge with waves on top of it.
The graphic will go into use this year, and hopefully it will make a difference.
More information: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov
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