Just to clarify a bit more here: Storm surges and tidal waves can be fantastically deadly and destructive too (Hurricane Katrina for example), I don't want to understate their danger. However, part of their destructiveness is the case because of a wider storm surrounding them. On the other hand, compared to the sheer ongoing energetic intensity of any tsunami of comparable or greater wave height, storm waves are the much weaker phenomena and much easier to stop with things like sea walls.