The National Hurricane Center tweeted out an interesting graphic for storm surge. It should give you some warning. However, keep in mind that the actual amount of water rise you get will heavily depend on the ground and contours where you live. For example, if you live at the back of a bay and your neighbor lives on the same bay but on the (using the Florida coast as an example in this very simplistic scenario) a southeast corner of the bay, then you can expect to see more real water rise and wave action. He will be on what is considered the lee side. Now, if the storm starts to slow down or stall, eventually the water will fill up all of the bottle and he will start seeing the same water levels minus the wave action.
EXPERIMENTAL Peak Storm Surge Forecast link
Don't underestimate the effect of wave. Each one will be a small "explosion" of energy against whatever it hits. And then you can also see the larger ones that are not so mini when numerous waves sync and cause a very large to pound into shore. We've all experienced that at the beach.
Here is a little storm surge story for you. When we lived in Hancock County, Mississippi Hurricane Katrina hit. In preparation for the storm we discussed many things. The one thing we did know is that because of our location 500 feet off the beach, we would be bugging out from there. But the question was where should we go. We've lived through many storms and at the time, no one was really talking about Katrina being a huge disaster. With that in mind we discussed going to a local facility a couple of miles from where we lived. Then reports of maybe higher surge started coming in and we started discussing which life preservers to take with us for the family. At some point, sanity arrived. We realized what we were discussing and decided then and there to forget the life vests and instead evacuate much further inland. We are very happy we did, else we would have been swimming in the middle of Katrina.
Don't let that be you. If you have any doubts, bug out. It is not worth it. It is better to be inconvenienced than possibly losing loved ones or they losing you.
