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New Report: 460K Tampa Bay Homes at Risk of Storm Surge

Worst Case Scenario: Hurricane Parallel to Bay
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The new report from CoreLogic finds 460-thousand homes in Tampa Bay are now at risk if a hurricane hits.

Nowhere is the threat of storm surge more wide spread than Pinellas County.

If there's a storm surge event, the water could push inland putting more than 70-thousand homes at risk.

In Hillsborough County, the CoreLogic report finds more than 40-thousand homes are at  risk of storm surge.

In Pasco county, 21-thousand homes.

USF Oceanography Professor Dr. Robert Weisberg says damaging waves are the bigger danger.

"If a wave hits a building just think of that every three seconds. Doesn't take too many punches before that structure just falls apart," he says.

And the worse case scenario is a storm that travels parallel to Tampa Bay.

"North east St. Petersburg in an area like that will probably have 15 feet of water above the land level. Every house in that region under such a scenario would be destroyed," he says.

Over at the Pinellas County Emergency Operations Center, they've already updated the storm surge maps, putting 20-thousand more homes in evacuation zones.