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Hurricane Ian: Why the Gulf Coast — especially in Florida — is so vulnerable to hurricanes, storm surge

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The more than 1,200 miles of shores in the southern U.S. that line the Gulf of Mexico are no stranger to strong storms — but that doesn’t make potential damage from an approaching cyclone any less likely.
As Hurricane Ian marches closer to the U.S., its aim toward the Gulf Coast is especially concerning considering how vulnerable the region is to storm surge, experts .
The underwater geology of the Gulf of Mexico is what makes the Gulf Coast particularly unguarded against the massive influx of seawater. The shallow waters in the Gulf, combined with the symmetry of its shallow ocean floor, are what allow the storm surge to be pushed even higher onto land, Ryan Truchelut, chief meteorologist at Weather Tiger, a consulting and risk management firm, .
The continental shelf of the Florida Gulf Coast extends quite far offshore — up to 200 miles in some spots, Truchelut said.
“The waters of the Gulf of Mexico just simply aren’t that deep, over a lot of the Florida coastal waters just offshore,” he said. “If there’s wind pushing water toward that direction, it’s shallow, it has nowhere to go. So it kind of amplifies and goes further inland.”
Meteorologists are most concerned about the west coast of Florida, starting in the Florida Keys and north to Tampa Bay, Michael Brennan, acting deputy director for the National Hurricane Center, .
The Tampa Bay area is “extremely sensitive” to storm surge, Brennan said, adding that the region could experience 5 to 8 feet of inundation — meaning above ground-level flooding. The Fort Meyers and Charlotte Harbor areas could see 4 to 7 feet and regions farther south could see 3 to 5 feet of inundation, Brennan said.
Another reason why the Gulf of Mexico is especially vulnerable to hurricanes and storm surge is because of its unique U-shaped coastline, which essentially traps a storm system into a populated region, no matter which way it turns, Truchelut said.

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