again...the 2 greatest storm surges ever recorded in the western hemisphere ...Hurricane Camille and Katrina both happened on the same Mississippi coast. Mississippi Sound has a very shallow shelf...the water really piles up....but both never went more than 1 to 2 miles inland. Read the after action reports...study aerial photographs..i visited Wade Guice, Harrison County civil defense director during Camille...we spent the entire day in Pass Christian..Long Beach...Gulfport. In Camille, the only true cat 5 to directly hit the mainland, everything within 6 blocks of the ocean was destroyed...thats it, 6 blocks. All surge damage stopped after the railroad tracks, about a mile form shore. Katrina surge damage actually went past the railroad tracks, something most thought would never happen...eclipsing Camille. This ridiculous claim of 40 mile from shore storm surge was absurd. Dont think the NHC isnt political...media was already saying Trump should cancel his speech tonight...combined with their global warming fantasies...i know bs when i hear it.
You are comparing apples and oranges.
The eye of Hurricane Laura came ashore essentially due south of Lake Charles. For that reason, there was no storm surge in Lake Charles. The storm surge was east of the eye. Lake Charles was in, not east of the eye. Holly Beach was in, not east of the eye as Hurricane Laura came ashore. Because the storm came in due south of the above named population centers, water was not piled up into Calcasieu Lake, Moss Lake, Prien Lake, and Lake Charles. If the storm approach had been a few miles W of named population centers at landfall, we would be having a different discussion. Fortunately, the worst storm surge occurred in low population Wildlife Refuges and Conservation Areas.