The official death toll in that storm was not even close to 7000. More like 1500. Do you have a link for your article, sounds interesting!

Pedro Ribera, Ricardo Garcia-Herrera and Luis Gimeno (July 2008). “Historical deadly typhoons in the Philippines”. Weather (Royal Meteorological Society) 63 (7): 196.

Best regards, Pete Ridley

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/super-typhoon-haiyan-closes-in-on-the-philippines-with-190-mph-sustain

The shape of the coastline is a major factor in storm surge height, but it also matters how steeply the land rises as you go from continental shelf to coastal plain. Shallow slopes, like the Gulf of Mexico, favor higher storm surges compared to mountainous near-shore terrain in places like the Antilles (I’m not sure of the detailed physics, but I think it’s a similar gradual funneling effect to what bays provide). New York is in one of the especially vulnerable spots: simulations of a Category 4 hurricane approaching on a track similar to Sandy’s produce a surge of more than 10 m in New York Harbor.

The storm surge height does not include battering waves riding on top of it. Twelve meters of storm surge in the Philippines sounds high to me, but 12 m of storm surge plus battering waves is quite plausible.

I think other than the very high tide effects in some areas (a one foot surge at the right time in the Bay of Fundy = a 41 foot surge!) the biggest effect is usually going to be the shape of the coastline. Also, the tide gages are not accurate reflections of local conditions. My SIL’s ceiling, which was lower than Bob’s surge, was far above the recorded surge level, but she happend to not be living on the tide gauge, which was located on a nearby river outlet.

One report for Haiyan would have had the surge at 12 meters in one location.

Related: The surge is generally measured where there is already water … at a tide guage, but the water climbs up on to land. How do you count 10 feet of water sitting on top of a 10 foot asl elevation? Is that 20 ft? (that would be the operative number if looking at a top map and wondering if your house will be flooded) or is that a 10 foot surge?

Five meters is nowhere near a record. The record for the Atlantic basin is 8.47 meters (assuming I’ve done the units conversion right) at Pass Christian during Hurricane Katrina. The topography of the Mississippi coast region makes it particularly vulnerable to storm surge; the previous record Atlantic storm surge, from Hurricane Camille, also occurred there (6.95 m). I’ve seen reports of a storm surge of more than 13 m from a cyclone hitting Australia, but don’t know how reliable the reports are.