NOAA and the Media—Working Together to Reduce Storm Surge Deaths and Destruction

Since its birth, the United States has lost over 25,000 people to tropical cyclones. Most of those deaths were due to storm surge. Every decade from the 1890's through the 1960's had at least one storm in which surge took hundreds or thousands of lives. More recently, Hurricane Katrina killed an estimated 1500 persons, the majority of deaths attributed to storm surge. Compounding an already acute problem is the recent upward trend in coastal population density, sea-level rise, sinking or subsidence of coastal land, and the growing dependence of our Nation's economy on coastal infrastructure. The U.S. Global Climate Change Research Program, an element of the President's National Science and Technology Council, recently reported that sea-level rise and the associated increase in hurricane-related storm surges will result in coastal communities being inundated more frequently – some permanently – by the advancing sea. Yet, despite past loss of life and increasing vulnerability, the bulk of our population remains fixated on wind-related damage. Indeed it is rare to see storm surge related graphics during hurricane/weather coverage. As a result, nearly everyone first thinks about wind when they hear about a hurricane. Such focus on wind-only hazards results in an overall lack of understanding and appreciation of the threat posed by storm surge. While the National Weather Service, along with its partners in NOAA, has engaged in aggressive outreach programs, such activities only reach a relatively small portion of the at-risk population, typically hundreds to thousands. The threat posed by storm surge needs to reach a population orders of magnitude higher. This can only be accomplished by engaging the media and providing media-friendly products and services aimed at clearly communicating storm surge threat and vulnerability. This paper focuses on NOAA's vision for better engaging the media and significantly reducing the loss of life and impacts associated with storm surge.