Odd Question

[Some Guy]

I'm working on a map of a tropical island in the Northern Hemisphere that features a storm barrier, and I have a question; if a tropical storm passes from the west and over the island to the other side, would the ocean on the eastern side begin flowing towards the island due to the wind once the storm passes over?

[Windspeed]

^Yes. Cyclonic winds drive sea surface motion directionally. The scale of impacts are dependant on a number of variables however: Forward motion of the cyclone, intensity of cyclone, size of cyclone and position of the cyclone's core center as the it tracks over and away from the island.

Forward motion is important as a slow moving cyclone will push and pile up water on the east side for a longer duration of time, increasing surge and wave heights. Conversely, a fast moving cyclone will have a shorter duration to push water on the easterly shoreline and additionally have weaker easterly cyclonic windspeeds due to the reduction that occurs against the opposing vector of motion.

Intensity is obviously a factor as a more violent tropical cyclone is going to have higher sustained winds thereby increasing surge potential. Size is somewhat tied to intensity as a larger circulation is going to cover a larger swath of ocean surface also increasing surge potential. A weaker but very large cyclone may have greater surge potential than a more intense but very small cyclone because of this. Not all tropical cyclones are created equal.

Position of westerly track with respect to the island is important as well. The angle of approach can increase or decrease surge potential based on the degree of perpendicular wind flow into the easterly facing coast / shoreline. Geography of island is also a factor here as shape of coast, inclination of slope of elevation, and extent / depth of the shelf that extends away from the coast can all increase or decrease potential surge height.

Obviously, the worst case is all of these factors being worst case at the same time:

A Category 5 with a large stable eyewall and large circulation, moving slowly and tracking as such that the easterly facing shoreline with harbours and a large shallow shelf remains perpendicular to incoming easterly surface wind flow for the maximum duration of time.

Hope this helps.

Edit: I added in the importance of coastal geographic features as well.

[Some Guy]

Thanks, it does help