LSU researchers create Gulf Coast’s first storm surge database

A pair of LSU researchers have combed through historical data relating to every notable storm surge to hit the Gulf Coast since 1880, and have parlayed it into SURGEDAT, the first comprehensive storm surge database for the coast. Barry Keim, professor and graduate director of LSU Department of Geography and Anthropology and Louisiana state climatologist, and graduate student “Hurricane” Hal Needham compiled the database with info from 28 federal government sources including the National Hurricane Center and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as well as numerous academic publications and more than 3,000 pages of various news articles. “Over the last century, storm surge has caused substantially more deaths in the U.S. and beyond than hurricane winds or flooding rains,” Keim says. The historical observations may help improve storm surge modelers’ forecasts of future storm surges and potential damages caused by high tropical storm waters, Needham says. You can check out the database here; and read a feature on the researchers and their work here.