htxag09 said:
Yeah not sure they're overplaying it. Predicting flooding from storm surge 20 miles inland where this thing is making landfall. Don't even want to know what a 15' storm surge would do to Houston.
Here is an interactive storm surge mapping tool. Some might find it useful.
The caution is it might be a little aggressive in some cases. I would use it to get a feel for areas of relative vulnerability.
I'm not an expert, but I've been told by knowledgeable folks that the area of hurricane force winds is a larger determining factor than the small area of max winds. So a bigger Cat 2 potentially has a larger surge impact than a smaller Cat 3.
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/nationalsurge/I suspect there are better maps for your local area if you dig around.