Hurricane Generated Storm Surge and the Resulting Economic Effects

Matthew Brodsky

02 November 2018
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On planet Earth, there are many weather phenomena that occur in the tropospheric layer

of the atmosphere: Tornadoes, thunderstorms, and the ones that cause the most widespread

destruction—hurricanes. The location of a hurricane’s formation is contingent on what it is

known as. Formation in the Pacific signifies that it is a typhoon, while formation in the Atlantic Commented [1]: reword

ocean basin establishes that it is a hurricane. It is considered a cyclone if it forms in the Indian

Ocean basin. The driving force of a hurricane “is powered by the heat and moisture of the

tropical oceans rather than thermal contrasts across latitudes as is the case for the more common

extra-tropical cyclone” (Deryugina, Kawano & Levitt, 2014). The formation of a hurricane is

caused by the interaction of rising and falling air, creating a low pressure zone called the “eye.”

(NASA, 2006). After the creation of the eye and the corresponding eye wall, a multitude of rain

bands are formed spinning in counterclockwise manner whilst in the northern hemisphere. When

a hurricane is at sea, it generates immense amounts of rain and massive swells due to the speed

of the winds. It is a common misconception that the wind is the most catastrophic feature of a

hurricane, however, the storm surge generated from the storm is (University of Rhode Island,

2015). The primary cause of storm surge is when “strong onshore winds [are] pushing the ocean

surface ahead of the storm on the right side of the storm track (left side in the Southern

Hemisphere)” (NASA, 2006). According to the University Corporation for Atmospheric

Research, storm surge is formed when the “winds swirl around a hurricane or tropical storm,

seawater is pushed into a mound at the storm’s center. Faster wind is able to pile up more water”

(UCAR, 2012). When the hurricane is about to make landfall “an 80-to-160-kilometer-wide

dome of ocean water sweeps over the coastline” (NASA, 2006). Storm surge severity increases

as the category of the storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale increases and how low the pressure near

landfall is. The term “pressure bomb” comes from the process of bombogenesis: “when a
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midlatitude cyclone rapidly intensifies, dropping at least 24 millibars over 24 hours” (US Dept.

of Commerce, 2014). This typically occurs in northern latitudes, forming a bomb cyclone.

However, it creates such a drastically low pressure that the storm surge is truly insane. Some of

the most deadly hurricanes to make landfall on the Eastern coast of the United States have had

immense storm surges, contributing to the destructive flooding on land. For example, Hurricane

Katrina (to be further analyzed) produced massive storm surges on the Louisiana coast line,

resulting in the damaging of levees in New Orleans and flooding of the city. (Allen, 2007). After

all of the surge has subsided, the damage has to be assessed. If the economic damages from the

hurricane generated storm surge on the Atlantic Coast of the United States were compared,

hurricanes with lower pressures and higher wind speeds will produce more storm surge related

damages.

In 2005, Hurricane Wilma ravaged the coasts of several North American and Caribbean

nations. On the Saffir-Simpson scale, Wilma registered as a Category 5 storm due to its winds

reaching 185 mph. Aside from the wind, Wilma also has had the lowest pressure of an hurricane

in history with a pressure at 882 millibars. The high intensity of the generated winds and the low

pressure combined to create a deadly concoction. When Hurricane Wilma made landfall on the

Western coast of the Florida Panhandle, “it generated storm surges of up to three feet above tidal

level” (University of Rhode Island, 2015). All of this was contingent on the location on the

panhandle as several locations had received more than five feet of storm surge. For example, the

National Ocean and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) had predicted how much of Key West

would be submerged by surge related flooding when the hurricane made landfall in the region.

Through the use of mathematical models, scientists were able to predict the heights of the

flooding in peak conditions. Hurricane Wilma’s storm surges were so massive due to the
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intensity of the winds. Much like tsunami formation, the wind (instead of seismic waves)

generates the energy needed to propel the waves towards the shore. Many Floridian coastal cities

such as Sarasota, Fort Myers, and Naples faced the brunt of the surge’s destructive forces.

Overall, Hurricane Wilma caused approximately more than $20 billion in damages. The state of

Florida took years to recover from this as its hurricane prone location did not assist in the effort.

Some of the most deadly storm surges occurred during Hurricane Katrina’s landfall along

the Louisiana coastline. Katrina made landfall in 2005, and still years later, the city of New

Orleans is recovering. At Katrina’s landfall, it had a pressure 920 millibar and howling winds of

175 mph (The Weather Channel, 2018). These two factors helped contribute to the severity of

the storm surge. Aside from this, even before Hurricane Katrina hit, New Orleans was a rather

flood prone area although levees

were situated all around the city.

These levees were designed to halt

the extensive flooding from storm

surge, however this novel idea

backfired when Katrina made

landfall. With a storm surge

cresting at 27 feet above normal

tide height, the levees in New

Orleans stood no chances against the forces of Katrina’s storm surge as they broke, resulting in

the flooding of about 80% of the city (Allen 2007). The high winds contributed to the wave train

height. Prior to the arrival of Katrina, the National Weather Service had developed “The Sea,

Lake and Overland Surges from Hurricanes (SLOSH) model is [which is] a computerized
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numerical model developed by the National Weather Service (NWS) to estimate storm surge

heights resulting from historical, hypothetical, or predicted hurricanes by taking into account the

atmospheric pressure, size, forward speed, and track data. These parameters are used to create a

model of the wind field which drives the storm surge.” (NOAA, 2018). After analyzation of the

SLOSH model, it can be clearly determined that the estimates were incorrect as it had not

predicted the flooding of New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina caused approximately 100 billion

USD in damages (Deryugina, Kawano & Levitt, 2014). Out of all of the surge ravaged area,

more than one-third was poverty stricken—most of the deaths occurred in this region of the city.

The flooding in these areas were six feet and over, as seen in the diagram. The city of New

Orleans’s effort to recover from Hurricane

Katrina has been hampered by various

financial issues and the Federal Emergency

Management Association (FEMA) going

bankrupt.

In 2014, “eight years later, the population of

New Orleans is nearly 25 percent smaller

than before the

devastation, and parts of

the city have never been

rebuilt” (Deryugina,

Kawano & Levitt, 2014).

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There is clearly not enough funding to rebuild these areas. However, it was quite shocking upon

the further analyzation of tax returns:

Remarkably, the earnings gap is erased the following year, and by 2008, the hurricane

victims actually have higher wage income and total income than control households.

Even those who lived in the most damaged areas do not have lower earnings in the long

run, although they are slightly more likely to report no wage income. Consistent with

these wage earnings responses, we find that while unemployment receipts and non-

employment among the Hurricane Katrina victims spike after the storm, the differences

disappear by 2007 and 2009, respectively. Five years later, Hurricane Katrina victims are

less likely to be receiving unemployment benefits (Deryugina, Kawano & Levitt, 2014). Commented [2]: Interesting fact

Although the city of New Orleans did not face this catastrophic event, the citizens, specifically

the evacuees, were able to rebound and live their lives again after the storm.

In the past decade, there have been several hurricanes to wander their way into the

“frigid” North Atlantic waters. Superstorm Sandy was one of these hurricanes, however it was

able to sneak under the radar as a post-tropical depression. As Sandy meandered its way up the

Eastern Seaboard, it reached a “central pressure of 940 millibars—27.76 inches— Monday (Oct.

29), it was the lowest barometric reading ever recorded for an Atlantic storm to make landfall

north of Cape Hatteras, N.C.” (Sharp, 2012). However, Sandy only registered as a Category 1

Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with winds peaking at 91 miles per hour around the Toms

River, New Jersey area. This central pressure was rather close to the pressure of Hurricane

Katrina (2005), insinuating that Sandy would be a rather destructive force and create a

catastrophic storm surge, but with such “low” wind speeds, how would there be enough energy

to generate massive surge waves? Upon landfall, Sandy experienced the phenomenon where the
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intensity of a hurricane increases, resulting in strong winds and more surge. The areas most

affected being various sites along the Raritan River and Bay, Sandy Hook, select areas along the

Hudson River in New York, and the Barnegat Bay. It is completely unfathomable that a

hurricane of this strength could pound the northeast. The New Jersey coastline (specifically the

Barrier Islands) took the brunt of the storm surge as most of the destruction was here. In the

Barnegat Bay, the prehistoric Mantoloking Inlet had reopened due to a combination of the forces

of the hurricane and the storm surge. This created more difficulty for the first responders to

assess the situation because the island now had much more seawater on it. The New York Harbor

faced Sandy’s wrath “but the more than 74-mile-per-hour winds’ most enduring impact may

have been from the massive swell of water they pushed atop land, obliterating beaches, drowning

boardwalks, filling subway tunnels, destroying electrical infrastructure and wrecking lives”

(Biello, 2012). New York City’s infrastructure was not designed for a hurricane of this severity.

Better off yet, it was not designed for hurricane survival at all. An example of this was the

Rockaways, a popular tourist area in the Queens borough of the city, was nearly destroyed due to

the forces of the storm. In the rebuilding effort, the United States government organized a beach

replenishment project of more than 3.5 million cubic yards of sand. In addition to this, New York

City officials developed sand dunes to protect the areas behind the beaches from tidal forces

(Ferré-Sadurní, 2017). To make Sandy’s destruction even more severe, bombogenesis occurred

in the Northern Atlantic with the creation of Winter Storm Athena (a bomb cyclone). This further

worsened everything and created even more damage. After the conclusion of Sandy and Athena,

the damages were assessed. The destruction was immense as “Sandy destroyed 305,000 houses

in New York state - a still provisional number that’s likely to grow - compared to the 214,700

destroyed in Louisiana by Katrina and Rita. Sandy also caused nearly 2.2 million power outages
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at its peak in the state, compared to 800,000 from Katrina and Rita in Louisiana, and impacted

265,300 businesses compared to 18,700, Cuomo said.” (Russ 2012). While as New Jersey “saw

massive damage to its transit system and coastline, suffered at least $29.4 billion in overall

losses, according to a preliminary analysis released by Governor Chris Christie’s office” (Russ,

2012). For the two entities alone, Sandy’s devastation would cost them a whopping $65 billion.

At the time, it was second to Katrina as the most costliest storm in American history. The

recovery effort from Sandy would take years as many of the local areas are still facing economic

hardship, however in times of distress, the locals proceed to rise up from the storm.

The phenomenon of hurricanes will never cease to exist. Their destructive forces will

proceed to ravage the coastal societies of the world. The low central pressure in the eye of the

hurricane will combine with the high winds generated from the hurricane’s counterclockwise

rotation to create an massive storm surge that will create catastrophic flooding on the shoreline.

Hurricanes such as Wilma

(2005), Katrina (2005), and

Sandy (2011) are prime

examples of how pressure

and wind create a destructive

surge and widespread

flooding. Hurricane Sandy

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was rather different from Wilma and Katrina as it was of a lower category on the Saffir-Simpson

scale and in the slightly less tropical waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. Storm surge is

inevitable and cannot be prevented from happening during a hurricane. However, there are little

to no precautions to prevent it. Dunes stand no chance against the surge as the dunes are easily

overcome by the flood waters and mass erosion would occur. The raising of houses above the

predicted flood lines is feasible, but this would only be possible in suburban coastal

communities. It would be unavailable to places like New York (during Sandy) due to the

predicament that it is not supported by the city’s infrastructure. Wave defusing devices, which

reduce the energy of a wave, would not be applicable to this situation due to the surge’s energy

practically turning these into projectiles. As a precaution, SLOSH and other mathematical

models can be analyzed to determine the storm surge contingent on historical data and the

hurricane’s characteristics. In conclusion, the deadly combination between a the low pressure of

a hurricane and its wind speed develop a catastrophic and unpreventable storm surge. In the

future, more data can be tabulated to enhance the mathematical models to create a new scale of

rating hurricanes contingent on storm surge, pressure, and wind speed.

Good information. Maybe a bit more on the SLOSH model would be good, but you detailed the

economics and recovery of the storms well. Maybe one or two more primary journal sources

would be good. Overall, you’ve earned 97 out of 100 points

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