Causes of Hurricane Damage

Causes of Hurricane Damage
Cause	Component		Comments
Flooding	"Storm Surge"	Elevation of sea level caused by low surface barometric pressure	"Sea level" rises in response to a pressure drop by about ~1 cm/mb
		Ekman transport	Is greatest when winds are parallel to the shoreline with land to the right of the direction towards which the wind is blowing.
		Waves (can approach 50 feet in height)	Are worst when the wind direction is directly onshore.
		High tides	When the storm surge occurs at high tide its destructive effects are worsened.
	Rain-induced		Some hurricanes have dumped more than 20 inches of rain. This is the main cause of inland damage associated with hurricane remnants.
Landslides	Rain-induced		Not a major problem in the USA because hurricane-vulnerable coastal regions have little vertical relief. Sometimes a major problem in mountainous coastal regions such as occur in much of Central America and some islands of the West Indies.
Wind	Wind from hurricane circulation		Can exceed 155 mph in category 5 storms.
	Hurricane-spawned tornadoes		Occur in about one quarter of all hurricanes.
	Spin-up vortices		Small eddies 30 to 100 meters in diameter which may rotate at speeds as high as 70 knots (80 mph). Much like small tornados, these occur in or near the eye wall and persist for about 10 seconds. Such a vortex, in a strong hurricane, can produce a brief episode of total wind speeds exceeding 200 mph.