How far inland can storm surge be an immediate problem?
A. It depends on how quickly the terrain rises along your shore. If it is a very low, flat area (like near a river basin), the storm surge would obviously reach a lot further inland than when it runs up against a steeply sloping shoreline. It doesn’t act exactly like a tidal wave, but is a big dome of water perhaps 20 feet or so high. The exact height of a storm surge depends upon so many factors: the strength of the hurricane, how quickly the hurricane is moving, what direction it is moving relative to the shoreline (is it coming straight in, or grazing along an angle?), how rapidly the sea floor is sloping along the shore, the shape of the shoreline, and the astronomical tide. Anything along the shore which isn’t higher than the depth of the storm tide is at risk, which could be many miles in a very flat area. Also keep in mind that the height of the storm surge does NOT include the high of the waves on top of it.
