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Last August, Hurricane Irene was there through the Caribbean and parts of the eastern United States, causing widespread damage . The Category 3 storm pulled up water levels, generating storm surges  with widespread impact on seaside settlements. Many hurricane analysts suggested, based on the wide extent of flooding, that Irene was a “100-year event”: a storm that only comes  once in a century.

According to wikipedia

 Hurricane Irene was a large and powerful Atlantic hurricane that left extensive flood and wind damage along its path through the Caribbean, the United States East Coast and as far north as Atlantic Canada in 2011. The ninth named storm, first hurricane and first major hurricane of the annual hurricane season, Irene originated from a well-defined Atlantic tropical wave that began showing signs of organization east of the Lesser Antilles. It developed atmospheric convection and a closed cyclonic circulation center, prompting the National Hurricane Center to initiate public advisories late on August 20, 2011. Irene improved in organization as it passed the Leeward Islands, and by August 21, it had moved closer to Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. The next day, Irene made landfall at Category 1 hurricane strength in Puerto Rico, where severe flooding resulted in significant property damage and the death of one person. 

Researchers from MIT and Princeton University have found that with climate change, such storms could make landfall far more frequently, causing powerful, devastating storm surges every three to 20 years. They found that today’s “500-year floods” could, with climate change, occur once every 25 to 240 years. The researchers published their results in the current issue of Nature Climate Change.

 MIT postdoc Ning Lin, lead author of the study, says knowing the frequency of storm surges may help urban and coastal planners design seawalls and other protective structures.

Links and Sources:

ENN , MIT News  Wikipedia

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