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Parade of Hurricanes Erode Florida Beaches

Posted on: Wednesday, 29 September 2004, 06:00 CDT

By BILL KACZOR

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) -- Many of Florida's beaches have taken on a different look after this year's parade of hurricanes finished shifting, eroding or completely relocating tons of sand. How to deal with that change will be a complicated and costly problem, coastal experts say.

Hurricane Ivan mostly just rearranged the snowy white sand on two barrier islands in the Panhandle, but nature will need help putting it back where it was.

Before Ivan, Hurricane Charley caused major erosion on North Captiva Island in southwest Florida. It cut a pass through the barrier island a third of a mile wide, splitting it in two. Nearby Gasparilla and Captiva islands sustained minor erosion, state officials said.

Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne, which followed similar paths along the Atlantic Coast, caused erosion at New Smyrna Beach that exposed building foundations, threatening 16 homes and condominiums. Jeanne also washed away parts of U.S. 1 in the Melbourne area and sent a waterfront swimming pool tumbling into the ocean at Satellite Beach.

State officials Monday were just beginning to assess Jeanne from the ground instead of the air as they did with the first three storms. The assessment - from Palm Beach County to the Georgia state line - will take longer but help them better separate the erosion caused by Jeanne and Frances, said Russell Schweiss, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Much of the sand that Ivan, the worst of the first three storms, eroded from Panhandle beaches is still around. It is piled high on streets and in yards, or inside those buildings still standing. The sand is filled with bits and pieces of metal, wood, concrete, glass and other debris.

"There's telephone poles and cars sticking out of the sand," said Escambia County Administrator George Touart after his first post-storm visit to Pensacola Beach. "There's sand over the top of the cars. You can only see the antennas."

Geologist Gregory Stone, director of the Coastal Studies Institute at Louisiana State University, has done detailed studies of Santa Rosa Island, which includes Pensacola Beach, for the past two decades.

The same thing happened when Hurricane Opal struck in 1995, although the damage was not as severe. The long, narrow island runs for about 50 miles from Pensacola to Destin and separates the mainland from the Gulf of Mexico.

"We actually found after Hurricane Opal the barrier island lost only 5 to 10 percent of its sand," Stone said. "Sand is locked up on the barrier island."

Thousands of aerial photographs are being examined to determine the best response for each beach eroded by this year's hurricanes, said Paden Woodruff, environmental administrator for the state Bureau of Beaches and Coastal Systems.

The sand Ivan left behind must be moved from roadways and yards back to the gulf's edge at Pensacola Beach and on Perdido Key, another barrier island shared by Florida and Alabama.

Pensacola Beach last year completed a renourishment project that dredged sand from offshore and pumped it onto the island to widen the beach. Without it, the damage from Ivan would have been even worse, Stone said.

Touart said crews initially were in the "shovel and throw" mode, bulldozing sand onto roadsides to clear paths for residents. Some found empty lots. Contract workers then began taking the sand to a central site Saturday and sifting it to remove debris.

"That sand is $20 a yard sand," Touart said. "We just put $20 million back on Pensacola Beach and we want to save as much as possible."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will get the bill, expected to be in the millions, for cleaning and hauling the sand.

It is normal for sand to shift back and forth on barrier islands, changing their contour and shape. Officials intend to let nature take its course on undeveloped portions of the two islands included in the Gulf Islands National Seashore.

It could take up to seven years for nature to get things back to where they were before Ivan and longer for a return to pre-Opal conditions, Stone said.

Increased tropical weather activity in recent years may leave developed areas without the protection afforded by beaches and dunes when the next severe storm strikes, he said.

Areas naturally starved for sand or where storms have carried it out to sea will need another renourishment project, Woodruff said. "It's like a blood transfusion," he said. "You've got to add sand to the system."

The Legislature annually spends $30 million on beach restoration and some of this year's money already is committed.

This year's run of storms could easily outstrip the $31.8 million spent on Panhandle beaches after Opal. Economists have determined every $1 spend on beach restoration attracts $8 in tourist spending, Woodruff said.

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Florida Bureau of Beaches and Coastal Systems

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