- The significance of mangrove habitat for protection against storm surges is explained: “We measured mangrove width as the distance between the coast and the interior boundary of the forest along the shortest distance from each village to the coast. Average 1999 width across the 409 villages was 1.2km down from 5.1 in 1944…The total number of deaths across the villages was 256, for an average of 0.63 (average village population = 1,002). The maximum was 21, and 307 villages had no deaths. The simple correlation of number of deaths with 1999 mangrove width was negative and significant (r = -0.13, P <0.01; Fig. 2).