Savannah on hurricane ‘risk list'

Savannah’s overdue for a hurricane, according to Rick Knabb, the Weather Channel’s hurricane expert.

The coastal city hasn’t had a direct hit from a hurricane since 1979. That’s when the center of Hurricane David, a Category 1 storm, made landfall.

Hurricanes are less likely to make landfall along Georgia’s coast than in other Southern states that touch the Atlantic Ocean because of the state’s coastline. The westward curve of the coastline between St. Mary’s and Savannah helps spare the Peach State’s barrier islands from storms.

Instead, the hurricanes brush Florida and then move up toward the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Knabb, a former senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center, said regardless of geography, Savannah is No. 4 on his list of five metropolitan areas that are vulnerable and overdue for a storm.

He chose the areas based on a combination of the amount of people and property at high risk as well as how long it’s been since the area has been directly hit by a storm.

"It's a matter of when, not if, these areas are stuck next," Knabb wrote on Weather.com

The metropolitan areas of Miami-Fort Lauderdale top this list. While Florida got walloped by back-to-back storms in 2004 and 2005, a major storm -- Category 3 or higher -- hasn't hit since Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Knabb points out.

The damage from storms such as Wilma, which tore across the state in 2005, however, is a reminder that it doesn’t take much to damage a heavily populated coastal city.

New York City is No. 2, Kabb writes. Hurricanes tend to hit the northeast less frequently, but the shape of the coastline makes New York especially vulnerable to storm surge, he said. No storm has struck directly in recent years, but Knabb said longtime residents may remember Hurricane Bob, which hit in 1991, and Hurricane Gloria in 1985.

No. 3 is Tampa Bay, an area on Florida’s west coast that was spared from a direct hit by Hurricane Charley in 2004. The Tampa-St. Petersburg area is vulnerable to storm surge and is at risk for major property damage, given the amount of development along the coastline.

Rounding out the top 5 is Atlantic City, N.J., an area that hasn’t had a direct hit from a hurricane in more than 100 years, Kabb points out. A Category 1 storm hit the city in 1903. The area is not as densely populated as the others, but its high-rise buildings and piers face significant damage should a storm hit.