This educational video from the National Weather Service highlights the destruction from a storm surge during a hurricane.

A storm surge is water that is pushed onto shore by a hurricane. It is rarely a "wall of water" as often claimed, but rather a rise of water that can be as rapid as several feet in just a few minutes.

Footage from recent hurricanes show how water levels in a storm surge can rise exponentially in a matter of minutes. Footage captures large hailstones breaking several building and car windows in ...