'Storm surge was killing people more than any other hazard. The National Hurricane Center began testing surge forecasts in 2014 and issued the first official forecasts in 2017, the year Hurricane Irma slammed Florida and triggered the largest evacuation in the state's history. 'That kind of repetitive shock loading is the kind of thing that causes a lot of structural failure.' 'Each time a wave hits, it's just a big spike,' Haus said. When a hurricane makes landfall, winds powerful enough to rip a roof off a house push a wall of water onto shore. Unlike flood waters from rainfall or overflowing canals or rivers, storm surge also carries the power of wind, he said. 'Every bit of sea level that we add to this just makes this kind of scenario worse,' said Brian Haus, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, who studies the damaging power of storm surge. By 2080, when sea rise could reach more than three feet, flooding would engulf even more critical infrastructure, including hospitals and schools that often provide shelter. In all three regions, flooding from storm surge that once lingered along the coast travels miles farther inland and grows deeper. The analysis used three landmark hurricanes - Sandy, Isabel, and Irma - as benchmarks to understand how the impacts of storm surge could grow. coast to the kind of flooding unleashed during Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, and put more people at risk of drowning, the leading cause of death in hurricanes.Īn NPR analysis based on modeling from the National Hurricane Center for three critical regions - New York City, Washington, D.C., and Miami-Dade County - found future sea rise alone could expose about 720,000 more people to flooding in the decades to come. That inland march would expose a larger swath of the U.S. Rising seas and stronger winds mean the punishing waves pushed ashore by tropical storms and hurricanes will make their way farther and farther inland. As climate change warms the planet, drives up sea levels and energizes hurricanes, the arsenal of dangerous impacts delivered by the fierce storms is expected to get supercharged.Īmong the most worrisome: powerful flooding from storm surge.

Nyc flood zone map sandy