Local Surge Impacts Information

While the National Hurricane Center public advisory statements provide tropical cyclone related impacts on a regional scale, the local WFOs coordinate closely with the NHC to provide refined forecast products and warnings on a local level. Two of these products are the Hurricane Local Statement (HLS) and the associated Graphical HLS.

The HLS is a valuable product that can be used as a tool to monitor several different threats (not just surge) and potential impacts to your area. It includes:

Counties, parishes, or cities affected
Watches and/or warnings in effect
Recommended precautionary actions
Storm surge and storm tide information
Present winds and the expected time of onset of tropical storm or hurricane-force winds
Tornado, flood, flash flood, rip current, beach erosion, and inland high wind potential

Below is an example of the storm surge portion of an Hurricane Local Statement:

...STORM SURGE AND STORM TIDE...

TIDE LEVELS REPORTED BETWEEN 330 AND 400 PM SATURDAY:
HOUSTON SHIP CHANNEL/MANCHESTER - 10.4 FEET
EAGLE POINT - 7.7 FEET
PIER 21 - 5.8 FEET
PLEASURE PIER - 5.2 FEET
FREEPORT - 2.7 FEET

STORM SURGE FLOODING PERSISTS ALONG THE SHORE OF GALVESTON BAY AND ON THE BOLIVAR PENINSULA. THIS INCLUDES NEIGHBORHOODS NEAR THE SHORE OF CLEAR LAKE...AND THE COMMUNITIES OF SMITH POINT...LA PORTE...SEABROOK...KEMAH...BACLIFF...SAN LEON...AND SURROUNDING AREAS. TIDE LEVELS RANGE FROM 7 TO 11 FEET IN THESE AREAS. BOLIVAR PENINSULA IS COVERED WITH WATER. RAINFALL-INDUCED FLOODING OVER THE LAND AND IN CREEKS AND BAYOUS MUST DRAIN OUT INTO GALVESTON BAY WHICH WILL KEEP WATER LEVELS ON THE BAY ABOVE NORMAL FOR AN EXTENDED PERIOD OF TIME. TIDE LEVELS WILL ONLY SLOWLY SUBSIDE IN THESE AREAS THROUGH TONIGHT...AND WILL NOT RECOVER TO NEAR NORMAL LEVELS UNTIL SUNDAY MORNING.

Visit your local National Weather Service office website for more information about local surge impacts under the Hurricane Local Statements (HLS)

The State emergency management offices work closely with the NHC in assessing evacuations with respect to coastal storm surge vulnerability. The NHC updates SLOSH basins creating the MOMs and MEOWs which are ultimately used by EMs to drive the nation's evaculation zones.

Visit your State EM office website for more information about local surge evacuation zones