Impacts of Storm Surges on the Hoover Dike of Lake Okeechobee

The Coastal and Estuary Storm Tide (CEST) model, is employed to study water level response to hurricane on the Lake Okeechobee and the storm surge impact on the surrounding dike. The comparison of computed and observed storm surges from Hurricanes Jeanne (2004) and Wilma (2005) indicates that the CEST model well replicated storm surges. Strom surges from hypothetical hurricanes, with varies tracks, maximum wind speed, and forward speed together with different still lake water level, were used to examine surge impacts on the dike. The results show that the hurricanes from the west-south-west produce highest storm surges on the lake for the same category hurricanes, while the hurricanes from the north-north-west generate the lowest storm surges. The hurricanes with fast forwarding speed produce higher storm surges than the slow forwarding hurricanes. The results also indicated that overtopping most likely occurs at the southwest and northwest portion of the dike.