The Typhoon 0314 (Maemi) landed on the southeast coast of Korea and caused severe storm surge there. The tide gage in Masan Port recorded the storm surge of maximum of more than 2m and the area of more than 700m from the wharf was flooded by the storm surge. It was the first significant storm surge since the opening of the port. That is the reason why the storm surge was hindcasted with a numerical model. The result shows that the storm surge hindcasted by the numerical model was in agreement with the observed values.
Fig. 1 shows the track of Typhoon 0314 (Maemi). The typhoon passed by the JeJu Island and landed on the southeast coast of Korean Peninsula at 21hr, 12 September 2003 with a central pressure of 950 hPa and a progression speed of 45 km/h. While the typhoon was passing by Jinhae Bay and Masan Bay, the level of the astronomical tide reached near the mean level of high tides of a spring tide.
The storm surge, high waves, and astronomical high tide triggered the most severe coastal disaster in Korea since the attack of Typhoon 5914 (Sarah) in 1959. Although in Busan City the long coastal areas were inundated mainly by wave-overtopping and wave runup, in Masan City on Masan Bay, a small bay locating on the innermost of Jinhae Bay, the urban area of more than 700m from the Seo Hang Wharf was flooded by the storm surge. They have not ever met the attack of such an extremely sever storm surge since the opening of Masan Port. The tide gage on the northwest coast of the bay recorded the storm surge of a maximum of more than 2m, but the workroom of the tide observation tower was affected by high waves.
