I'm reading through news articles from last year and not seeing where I saw that about NOs. As I remember: The storm surge, the result of the low pressure, in a large enough storm extends far enough away from the eye that a near miss can still cause a dangerous surge level. With a strong hurricane, winds from the north east through southeast (those that would happen throughout the north quadrant of the storm) would back water up the bay north of NOs, increasing the Louisiana/Mississippi coast. This is why a near miss is almost more deadly in the way of a storm surge for NOs then a direct hit. The extra threat with a direct hit is, of course, the eye wall.

P.S. - Don't quote me! I'm not an expert on this

P.P.S. - I'm also not that familiar with land features in that area. I'd have to pull out my Geology text to get details