Hurricanes are large storms - usually a few hundred miles across - but the strongest winds are concentrated in the eye wall, the ring of strong thunderstorms that surrounds the relatively calm eye. If you go just a few tens of miles outside of the eye wall, the wind speed drops off dramatically.

There's also a difference in wind speed vertically in a hurricane. A recent study by researchers at the National Hurricane Center found that winds 300 feet up in the eye wall are about 20% stronger than winds at the ground. So, for example, winds of 75 mph at ground level would become 90-mph winds at the 30th floor of an oceanfront high-rise. This means the upper floors of tall buildings are potentially more vulnerable to hurricane wind damage than lower floors.

But this doesn't mean that the safest place in an oceanfront high-rise is the lowest floor. That's because of the storm surge, the rise in sea level that accompanies a hurricane. Water levels at the coast might go up ten or even twenty feet in extreme cases, so the lowest few floors aren't safe either. Of course, the wisest course of action if a hurricane approaches the coast is to evacuate.