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occurred to residential construction . Fully engineered construction usually performs well in high winds due to the attention given to connections and load paths . Hurricane winds generate massive quantities of debris that can easily exceed a community' s entire solid waste capacity by three times or more . Debris removal is an integral first step toward recovery , and as such , must be a critical concern of call those tasked with emergency management and the restoration of community services . A storm surge is a large dome of water often 50 to 100 miles wide and rising anywhere from 4 to 5 feet in a Category 1 hurricane and up to 20 feet in a Category 5 storm . The storm surge arrives ahead of the storm ' s actual landfall , and the more intense the hurricane is , the sooner the surge arrives . Water rise can be very rapid , posing a serious threat to those who have waited to evacuate flood prone areas . A storm surg is a wave that has outrun its generating source and become a long period swell . The SL rge is always highest in the right-front quadrant of the direction the hurricane is moving in . As the storm approaches shore , the greatest storm surge will be to the north of the hurrica a eye . Such a surge of high water topped by waves driven by hurricane force winds can be devastating to coastal regions . The stronger the hurricane and the shallower the offshore water, the higher the surge will be . In addition , if the storm surge arrives at the same time as the high tide , the water height will be even greater. The storm tide is the combination of the storm surge and the normal astronomical tide . Damage during hurricanes also may result from possible spawned tornadoes , and inland flooding associated with heavy rainfall that usually accompany these storms . Hurricane Andrew, a relatively "dry" hurricane , dumped 10 inches of rain onsouth Florida and left many buildings extensively water damaged . Rainwater may seep into gaps in roof sheathing and saturate insulation and ceiling drywall , in some cases causing ceilings to collapse . Crop damage is another powerful effect of hurricanes and tropical storms , Recently , Tropical Storm Mitch dropped as much as 10 inches of rain in some south Florida areas , which resulted in approximately $20 million in crop damage in Palm Beach County alone (Associated Press , 1998 ) . According to the University of Florida (2001 ) of Indian River County's 322 , 112 acres , 168 , 399 acres are farmland . With 52 % of its land area being farmed , Indian River County is particularly vulnerable to crop damage resulting from the wind and rain from hurricanes and tropical storms . Historic Events. Specific information on previous occurrences of hurricanes and tropical storms is located in the flooding section . From 1930 through 1959 , a otal of 58 hurricanes struck the U . S . mainland ; 25 of which were Category 3 or higher ( major storms ) . Between 1960 and 1989 , 43 hurricanes struck the U . S . ; 16 of which were Category 3 or stronger. Most hurricane experts feel we are entering a period of increased hurricane formation similar to the levels seen in the 1930 ' s and 1940 ' s . Current hurricane risk calculations are complicated by climatic factors suggesting the potential for even greater hurricane frequency and severity in all of the world ' s hurricane spawning grou ids . Since 1995 , there have been 33 Atlantic hurricanes , and there were 10 in 1998 alone . Global warming may cause changes in storm frequency and the precipitation rates associated with storms . A modest 0 . 9 ° F (0 . 5 ° C ) increase in the mean global temperature will add 20 days to the annual hurricane season and increase the chances of a storm making landfall on the U . S . mainland by 33 % . The warmer ocean surface also will allow storms to increase in 4-22