Tropical Storm Irma causes record storm surge in Jacksonville, floods Charleston
Hurricane Irma, which was reclassified as a tropical storm early Monday, saved some of its worst storm surge impacts for northeast Florida, coastal Georgia, and South Carolina.
In Jacksonville, a record surge flooded downtown, leading the National Weather Service to issue a flash flood emergency as the water rose rapidly on Monday. Hours of strong winds blowing the ocean inland, and preventing water from the St. Johns River from escaping back into the ocean, helped worsen the flood situation in Jacksonville.
The flooding in Jacksonville, while predicted, is some of the worst the city has seen. Despite being weaker than Hurricane Matthew was when it passed by the city in 2016, Tropical Storm Irma helped push a greater amount of water onshore, and it struck right at the time of high tide. This caused the city to see its highest storm surge flooding on record.
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A flash flood emergency was also issued for Charleston County in South Carolina, which includes the city of Charleston, as the storm surge caused extensive flooding there. The ocean in Charleston reached its third-highest level, coming up short of the surge seen in Hurricane Hugo in 1989.
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Coastal flooding from Irma has now affected four large cities, each of which has been seeing increased flooding as sea levels rise from climate change: Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, and Charleston, South Carolina. Savannah, Georgia, has also been seeing flooding as Irma's winds push Atlantic waters toward the coast.
Andrew Freedman is Mashable's Senior Editor for Science and Special Projects. Prior to working at Mashable, Freedman was a Senior Science writer for Climate Central. He has also worked as a reporter for Congressional Quarterly and Greenwire/E&E Daily. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Post, online at The Weather Channel, and washingtonpost.com, where he wrote a weekly climate science column for the "Capital Weather Gang" blog. He has provided commentary on climate science and policy for Sky News, CBC Radio, NPR, Al Jazeera, Sirius XM Radio, PBS NewsHour, and other national and international outlets. He holds a Masters in Climate and Society from Columbia University, and a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School at Tufts University.
