One thing that always irritates me about the coverage of hurricanes is that they describe the storm surge as a "wall of water." It's not a wall of water. That makes it sound like some kind of tsunami that comes all in one big wave. Storm surge is a lot more like a very high tide, mixed with big waves and driving wind, that forces more and more water farther inland until it piles up into a big flood. One wave comes in and raises the level a few inches, then before it backs out another comes, and another, and another... Eventually you have 20 feet of water. But it doesn't come all in one big 20-foot-tall "wall of water" crashing ashore. Not to take anything away from it --- it's still incredibly dangerous. But it's not a damn tidal wave.