In Miami, Patricia Magalhaes and her family decided to stay in their high-rise in the waterfront Brickell neighborhood because electricity is typically restored quickly after storms. Hurricane Sandy lost its tropical characteristics before making landfall in 2012, but its enormous size drove catastrophic storm surge onto the New Jersey and New York coastlines.Ī quarter of Florida's population, 6.4 million people, were warned to evacuate low-lying areas. Storm surge flooding up to 28 feet (8 meters) above normal tide levels were associated with Hurricane Katrina in 2005, directly or indirectly causing at least 1,500 deaths, according to the hurricane center.Įven tropical storms can cause major coastal flooding. The surge helped destroy nearly half the structures along a 40-mile (64 kilometer) stretch of the Florida Keys during the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, which killed over 400 people, including World War I veterans working on a railway project. deaths from hurricanes, tropical storms and cyclones over the last half-century, according to a hurricane center study. Storm surge has accounted for half the U.S. God that looks awful."įarther north is the Tampa Bay region, with about 3 million people, a Busch Gardens theme park and baseball spring training grounds for the Philadelphia Phillies and Toronto Blue Jays. "Look at Naples, the entire town of Naples is underwater," Klotzbach said. The hurricane center's storm surge maps, showing deep inundation for Naples, worried Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. North of the Everglades lies Naples, an upscale town of about 22,000 that is also the home of the Florida governor. "The Everglades won't stop the potential flooding to inhabited areas," Rhome said. Much of Florida's southwest coast is uninhabited swampland, including a large section of Everglades National Park. Much of that landscape lies less than 10 feet (3 meters) above sea level, and the surge from Irma could be a few inches higher in some areas. "This is going to sneak up on people," Rhome said.Ībout 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) of coastline from Tampa Bay to the mid-South Carolina coast could see storm surge. Large hurricanes tend to create greater storm surge over a broader area, and coastal features such as bays can act like funnels and back water up into rivers and canals, Rhome said. The flooding risk will not drop just because Irma's winds might weaken, said Jamie Rhome, head of the hurricane center's storm surge unit. The categories for hurricanes measure wind speeds, and don't say anything about storm surge. It can come from sounds, bays and lakes, sometimes well inland. Storm surge doesn't just come from the ocean. It can happen quickly and far from a storm's center, inundating areas that don't typically flood. Simply put, hurricane winds push water toward shore. This is known as a ‘hurricane bulge’ and is a rare phenomenon that will only last a short time, before returning to normal.Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said it was Irma's storm surge threat, not fierce winds, that triggered evacuation orders for 660,000 people in the Miami area.
Combined with powerful winds driving water farther offshore, sea level lowered dramatically, exposing the ocean bottom.
“This exceptionally low pressure acting as a suction force, drawing air and water upwards in the circulation center.
“Hurricane Irma produced extraordinarily low air pressure (27.0 inches) approaching the Leeward Islands, when maximum sustained winds reached 185 mph for a record 37 consecutive hours on Sept. Storm Team 4 Meteorologist Ben Gelber also says Irma’s low pressure has contributed to this phenomenon, called “hurricane bulge.” MORE: Interactive tracking map for Hurricane Irma Washington Post meteorologist Angela Fritz sums it up thus: “Basically, Hurricane Irma is so strong and its pressure is so low, it’s sucking water from its surroundings into the core of the storm.” Videos posted to social media appear to show no water in the ocean on Long Island in the Bahamas. LONG ISLAND, Bahamas (WCMH) - Is Hurricane Irma changing the shape of the ocean?
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