“a hurricane just sucked the bay out as far as she could see.”
Isn’t that what happens just before a tidal wave comes in — the sea “empties out” for a while? Then... whoosh!
That didn’t happen in this case; it appears that sometimes the winds just pull the water out, and shortly it seeps back in. It seems to happen in coves and bays; I don’t have much background in these things and don’t understand the dynamics of it.