Storm surge is the greatest potential threat to life and property associated with hurricanes. A storm surge is a large dome of water, 50 to 100 miles wide, that sweeps across the coastline near where a hurricane makes landfall. It can be more than 15 feet deep at its peak.
The level of surge in a particular area is primarily related to the intensity of the hurricane and slope of the continental shelf. The SLOSH model is used by communities to evaluate storm surge threat from different categories of hurricanes striking from various directions.
Because storm surge has the greatest potential to kill more people than any of the other hurricane hazards, it is wise to err on the conservative side by planning for a storm that is one category more intense than is forecast.
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