Help me understand this Storm Surge map

It's probably for a storm going right up the Mississippi. The surge gets funnelled into the river. Only thing that makes sense.

I would take the NOAA stuff wth a grain of salt. Their statistical methods are known to generate overly conservative estimates. A better place to look is the link below. You can even type in your address.

LINK

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Note that a category 3 hurricane you mention could actually be pushing a category 5 storm surge, as the case with Katrina, because the categories are determined by continuous WIND speed at the time of LANDFALL rather than any measure of the water. In Katrina's case I believe at landfall it clocked sustained 127 mph (with gusts much higher), which gave it only a cat 3 designation. However, it was a HUGE storm with an eye which alone was 38 miles in diameter and which earlier was clocking sustained 175 mph and pushing a cat 5 storm surge. Where the eye struck in Plaquemines Parish the surge was measured at 30.4 feet deep, with wave action on top of that. Eyewitness accounts place water well over the tops of the backboards of the high school gymnasium.

Also I would imagine that the maps of projected water levels to which you refer may show the level any given location COULD receive should that particular location get the maximum possible hit, and NOT the levels which ALL locations would suffer.