Beach Erosion the Worst Harm in S. Florida From Noel
By Robert Nolin, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Nov. 2–Weather watches were lifted Thursday as Tropical Storm Noel veered off to sea, leaving memories of gusty days and scattered rain from South Florida’s stormiest episode of this year’s waning hurricane season.
“We’ve gotten what we’re going to get,” said James Franklin, a forecaster with the National Hurricane Center in Miami-Dade County. Noel was upgraded to a hurricane Thursday evening but it was far off the Florida coast and heading northeast.
Over the next couple of days, we’ll still get what we’ve been getting all along: stretches of wave-ravaged shore. A high pressure area in the north, clashing with the storm to the south, tore chunks of coastline from Palm Beach County beaches. Broward’s beaches were damaged less but still lost sand.
“From a beach erosion perspective, it’s been bad. That’s the main impact of the storm,” said Robert Molleda, warning coordinator for the National Weather Service west of Miami. “We’re still going to have some lingering rough surf, especially in Palm Beach County.”
South Florida was under a tropical storm watch, then warning, from Wednesday through Thursday. Those alerts were lifted Thursday afternoon when Noel accelerated to 14 mph and moved northeastward. This morning it’s expected to be well offshore.
“To us, it doesn’t pose a threat,” said Franklin.
Noel, the 14th named storm of the season, lurched into striking distance last weekend from the Caribbean, where it caused 108 deaths, mostly from flooding in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Earlier in the week, South Florida was briefly within the storm’s range. Water managers, compensating for potentially heavy rains, lowered canal levels. The Coast Guard posted small craft advisories, and airlines and cruise ships canceled flights and altered destinations to avoid the foul weather, which included winds gusting to 60 mph at times.
Locally, wind speeds hit 30 mph, with gusts up to 40 mph. Rainfall was quick and spotty.
“Rainfall was not a factor with this system,” in South Florida, Molleda said. “Most areas had less than an inch.”
Parts of Broward County received more than 1.25 inches of rain, while Palm Beach County averaged just a quarter of an inch, according to the South Florida Water Management District.
Dust and debris kicked up by the winds triggered flare-ups among some allergy and asthma sufferers, health officials said. But hospitals and area health departments reported no problems serious enough to send people for treatment.
Broward’s beaches weathered the storm fairly robustly, losing only about 10 to 15 feet of sand, depending on the location.
“They’re holding up pretty well,” said Steve Higgins, the county’s beach erosion administrator. Much of the sand will form a sandbar and be returned to the beach by waves, Higgins said.
Beaches south of Port Everglades tend to erode and probably lost more sand. The beach just north of the inlet likely gained sand, Higgins said. “We were luckier than the counties to the north,” he said.
In Palm Beach County, waves eroded dunes and pounded uncomfortably close to condo foundations. The ocean bowled over a 10-foot high wall outside one condo in South Palm Beach and sucked its grass and shrubs out to sea.
As Noel journeys north, forecasters said its winds could hit the eastern U.S. coast. Weather in South Florida, meanwhile, will return to normal today, with some windy traces of Noel’s passing.
“It should be a pretty nice day,” said Molleda.
Swift on Noel’s heels will be a cold front, expected to arrive from the north Saturday, sending lows that night into the mid-60s.
Staff Writers Sally Apgar, David Fleshler, Brian Haas, Bob LaMendola and Andy Reid contributed to this report.
Robert Nolin can be reached at rnolin@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4525.
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