A: Wind is pushing water away (drawback); it'll rise rapidly with storm surge soon.
A: Seafloor is flat. Florida is flat. Surge is several meters. That's a long run.
1. Curiosity-crowds & damaged infrastructure hamper speedy retreats.
2. Humans chronically overestimate own capabilities.
A: Kinda. Storm surge is bulge (not wave series) so wind waves are on a higher water base.
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DJYxLKyVwAEFsnC.jpg)
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DJYxLKwUEAEvi04.jpg)
A: Those huge stretches of exposed ocean floor? That's -3.5 feet.
A: Water level (red line) is climbing at feet per minute.
A: Formation, mechanism, behaviour, impact, models... almost everything but material
Tsunami are waves triggered by a disruption (quake, impact, landslide...).
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DJZVQVyVYAA-s_n.jpg)
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DJZVQVzUQAAFPSi.jpg)
Tsunami flood-retreat-flood-retreat between wave crests & troughs.
For tsunami, later crests may be higher than crest of first wave.
(Tiny lies: Storm surge can only kinda be approximated as wave)
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DJZYXnFUIAAWHKs.jpg)
(Normal) wind wave: 10s of m
Storm surge*: 10s of km
Tsunami: 100s of km
Tides: 10,000s of km
* "wavelength"ish