Scientists show that hurricane storm surges in the Chesapeake Bay could get dramatically worse than the flooding caused by Tropical Storm Isabel in 2003. Under some conditions, the researchers found, a Category 4 hurricane could produce storm surges as high as 18 or 20 feet in Baltimore at high tide, 10 feet above Isabel’s high mark. The 18-foot storm surges are possible along the shoreline of Baltimore County.
“I guess I’m a little surprised the values are as high as they are,” said Wilson Shaffer, of the National Weather Service. He said the precise conditions needed to generate an 18-foot storm surge are rare but “within the realm of possibility.”
Topics Windstorm
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