Fact's from the Movie "The Day After Tomorrow"

[CaptinCrunch]

"In the last 30 years, inland flooding has been responsible for more than half the deaths associated with tropical cyclones in the United States."

Ed Rappaport
National Hurricane Center
Consider the following:

Tropical Storm Allison
Harris County Flood Control District
When it comes to hurricanes, wind speeds do not tell the whole story. Hurricanes produce storm surges, tornadoes, and often the most deadly of all - inland flooding.

While storm surge is always a potential threat, more people have died from inland flooding in the last 30 years. Intense rainfall is not directly related to the wind speed of tropical cyclones. In fact, some of the greatest rainfall amounts occur from weaker storms that drift slowly or stall over an area.

Inland flooding can be a major threat to communities hundreds of miles from the coast as intense rain falls from these huge tropical air masses.

Tropical Storm Allison (2001) produced extremely heavy rainfall and catastrophic floods in the Houston, Texas area. Allison then acquired subtropical characteristics and continued to produce heavy rainfall and flooding near its track from Louisiana eastward to North Carolina, and then northward along the U.S. east coast to Massachusetts. Forty-one deaths were directly related to the heavy rain, flooding, tornadoes, and high surf. Damage estimates reported by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) were near $5 billion, with approximately $4.8 billion in the Houston metropolitan area alone

Hurricane Floyd (1999) brought intense rains and record flooding to the Eastern U.S. Of the 56 people who perished, 50 drowned due to inland flooding.
Hurricane Floyd Courtesy of NASA/GSFC
Tropical Storm Alberto (1994) drifted over the Southeast United States and produced torrential rainfall. More than 21 inches of rain fell at Americus, Georgia. Thirty-three people drowned. Damages exceeded $750 million.

Tropical Storm Claudette (1979) brought 45 inches of rain to an area near Alvin, Texas, contributing to more than $600 million in damages.

Hurricane Agnes (1972) produced floods in the Northeast United States which contributed to 122 deaths and $6.4 billion in damages. Long after the winds from Hurricane Diane (1955) subsided, the storm brought inland flooding to Pennsylvania, New York, and New England contributing to nearly 200 deaths and $4.2 billion in damages.

Freshwater floods accounted for more than half (59%) of U.S. tropical cyclone deaths over the past 30 years. These floods are why 63% of U.S. tropical cyclone deaths during that period occurred in inland counties.

At least 23% of U.S. tropical cyclone deaths occur to people who drown in, or attempting to abandon, their cars.

78% of children killed by tropical cyclones drowned in freshwater floods.

So, the next time you hear hurricane -- think inland flooding!

[vbhoutex]

Excellent points being made here. A Hurricane is much, much more than the wind and raind associated with it. These are all facts that have been brought out in the latest studies of these storms and especially Allison, a lowly little, barely TS that caused over $5 Billion in damage and took over 20 lives.

EVERYONE that could be at danger from a Hurricane or TS or its' effects, even after landfall DOES NEED TO BECOME VERY AWARE OF ALL THAT IS ASSOCIATED WITH ONE OF THESE STORMS.

[Stormsfury]

The bottom line here is that, although, some people will always refuse to evacuate the coastlines, most people will get out of harm's way along the hurricane prone areas ... which is reducing the death toll from storm surge.

However, case in points with storms such as Floyd in 1999, and Allison which were used as examples ... excessive rainfalls well away from the point of landfall have proven quite devastating ...

Agnes, Camille (yes, Camille killed over 100 people in Virginia, due to excessive rainfalls and inland flooding) ...

SF

[mf_dolphin]

The danger I see is that in the last couple of years the emphasis has been switched away from evacuation. The big talk last year here in Florida from official channels was "prepare and ride it out". This is being driven in large part by the realization that most coastal areas just do not have the road systems to support a large scale evac in a timely manner. With evac orders often coming less than 36 hours and many times 24 hours of an expected landfall the roads get to be impassable in short order...

[cycloneye]

Here in Puerto Rico the vast majority of the deaths in hurricane landfalls here has been caused by the flooding and mudslides not the winds and we haved had many flooding events not related to hurricane landfalls and one of those was in the past month of november 2003 when 5 people died and the damage was in the high $ millons.