During hurricane season, a storm surges could cause most devastation

With hurricane season in full swing, new reports are supporting evidence that wind isn't the biggest threat during a hurricane, but water is.

A new report from data analysis company CoreLogic, analyzed 19 states along 3,700 miles of coastline between Texas and Maine to show that 7.3 million homes are at risk of being destroyed during a hurricane storm surge.

With 2.9 million residences at risk of coastal flooding during a storm surge, Florida topped the list of number of homes at risk. Tampa's 12,103 homes at risk earned the city its No. 5 ranking out of 15 coastal, metropolitan areas surveyed

“Damage from storm surge and inland flooding has proven to be far more destructive than wind in recent years, so we cannot rely on the hurricane category alone to give us a sense of the potential loss," said senior hazard scientist at CoreLogic, Tom Jeffery, in a press release. "A Category 5 hurricane in an area with few structures may be far less devastating than a Category 1 hurricane in a densely populated area.”