SouthernWx wrote:A couple of quick points:
1) landfalling U.S. cat-4 or 5 hurricanes are fairly rare occurrences, especially since the U.S. coast became a popular spot to live (around 1970). This means many of those hurricane storm surge maps are UNTESTED in a real violent hurricane. I was honestly surprised the storm surge from Charley last August was much lower than anticipated for such an intense (941 mb) hurricane in that area of SW Florida. [b]On the other hand, BOTH hurricane Hugo (934 mb) and Andrew (922 mb) produced HIGHER storm surges than believed would occur for their respective landfall areas.
We were very fortunate that neither Hugo nor Andrew's storm surge caused mass loss of life....but that was only because Hugo's highest storm surge occurred in sparsely populated marshland northeast of Charleston AND Andrew's max storm surge occurred over a very narrow corridor south of Miami Beach and other populated barrier islands/ beachfront areas.
If Hugo had slammed inland just southwest of Charleston, IMO hundreds would have drowned; if Andrew had made a direct hit on Miami Beach, the toll in lives IMO would have exceeded 1000.
If I lived on a barrier island or along the immediate coast...particularly in an area which hasn't experienced a cat-4/5 hurricane in recent decades, I wouldn't risk my life or the lives of my family based on storm surge maps which haven't "battle tested" during an actual severe hurricane....if I was even close to an evacuation zone and a cat-4 or 5 hurricane was approaching, I'd get the hell out....would take no chances.
2) I wish every single person living on a barrier island or immediate shoreline area could sit and listen to my distant cousin Gary's wife describe her harrowing account of hurricane Camille near Gulfport, Mississippi. Julie was only 8 years old at the time, but says she still has nightmares about that horrible night (as the water rose, her father cut a hole in the ceiling and roof, trying frantically to keep them all above the water level). Sadly, she lost her mom that evening (drowned)....and they lived five blocks inland from the beach
PW
Cat 1 -- I'm gone. Dealt with enough from Allison and the Mother's Day storm here was wild enough. Prefer not to have any horror tales to tell.