Damage caused by hurricanes can be divided into three types:

1. storm surge,
2. wind damage,
3. inland freshwater flooding

Hurricane force winds push water, causing it to pile up. When the storm surge is at sea, the water can flow away, but as the storm nears land, the water piles up to create a storm surge. The ultimate height of the resulting storm tide is a combination of the normal tide level and the size of the storm surge. The surge normally does not arrive as a tidal wave, but more like a quick rise in the tide to extremely high levels. The worst storm surges hit areas where the ocean floor has a gradual slope, such as around the Gulf of Mexico. The storm surge is responsible for 90 percent of all hurricane deaths.

The destruction from wind damage usually comes in the form of property damage. For some structures, especially mobile homes, the force of the wind is sufficient to cause total ruin. In areas with good building codes, wind damage tends not to produce the catastrophic damage of a storm surge, but hurricane-force winds affect a larger area and can cause great economic losses. The torrential rains that accompany most hurricanes create a third significant threat, that being flooding. Whereas a storm surge or strong winds are concentrated in coastal areas, heavy rains and the resulting flooding can affect areas for several days that are hundreds of miles from the coast, even after the hurricane-force winds die down.