Holy Cow Took a long walk down the south Melb beaches and the erosion is off the charts.

I've been here over 20 years and have never seen the dunes cut that far back. Plenty of uninhabitable structures now. Theres a swimming pool that was about 60% cantilevered over the dune. it will probably drop onto the beach any day now. Most access stairs are destroyed.

The dunes in this area were quite high, I can only imagine what it looks like in flatter areas to the north and the south.

I don't see what else can be done in the short term but to dump sand and shore up the dune, otherwise all those places are just going to have to be demolished, and it isn't even that much further to go to the A1A. I can't see them allowing the road to be at risk, not to mention a few more feet of dune cutback and it would be all downhill from the beach to the river.

Nicole really left a mark

Well, way back in the day; early 1960's when we first started to "go to the beach" in South Patrick Shores, , , , , ,

The beach/dunes did not look too different from today. Sure the beach itself was pretty good and the "dunes" were much "higher" then BUT, there was always a pretty steep/tall "drop off". We'd have to jump to reach and grab the palmetto roots.

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Dora Hates You

Except those houses / motels that were built back in the 60's and were back from the dune edge
then, are hanging over the beach now.

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When America was "great"

Satellite is shredded too. Cocoa Beach fared well, but we have the cape shadow and an established vegetation filled dune.

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I was right.

What year was it - driving on the beach was outlawed ahhh the good ol days

RE : The beach/dunes did not look too different from today. Sure the beach itself was pretty good and the "dunes" were much "higher" then BUT, there was always a pretty steep/tall "drop off". We'd have to jump to reach and grab the palmetto roots. ( ----Esp at Sea Park , with the bluff . )

In Vero Beach, the concrete "boardwalk" at Humiston Park was designed to remain intact in the event of sand disappearing from under it. That's happened several times. This time, major reconstruction is needed. South Beach Park, where Riomar Cove (no natural reef but some big boulders placed as mitigation around 2005 at the south end of condo row), there was substantial beach retreat, but a new sandbar has been developing, just as after events like the 2004 hurricanes. The Cove has been growing seaward since 2004, likely feasting on sand drifting south from renourishment to the north. I wouldn't be surprised if some would-be buyers of oceanfront houses might be deterred by being so far from the ocean.

As a kid I would Skim board underneath the pipe extending seaward. I wonder if its exposed again after the coastal surge.

I remember surfing a swell down there years ago and I had to get out and go to work and it was so steep it took me forever to find a spot to jump and grab a root to get me off the beach I was an hour late to work!


Edited: 11/18/2022 at 08:13 AM by TATTOO74

I just rode my bike from BW to Pineda on the beach. Wasn't easy. Saw a lot of stuff. Geo Textile bags exposed and ripping apart, A1A wastewater outflows exposed, millions of shells, lots of "critical" erosion, and the beach looking similar to what I've seen since at different times that I've been here for about 30 years. Some of the Sabellaria reef is starting to show again in IHB and a few spots in Sat beach (saw about 5 spots coming out). Granted, I come from Daytona, where I was first exposed to sea walls I never knew existed during one fall storm in 1984. I even lucked into a fossilized ghost crab today. Score! Yeah, it is rough. I've been dutifully planting sea oats for surfrider for some 10+ years. I suppose it helped, but I'm pretty numb to the changes. People have told us this is coming. I suppose we could just keep ignoring it. My guess is there is some significant policy that will be addressed soon.

I haven't been much south of the pineda yet, but yeah...super sad about the beating our beaches took from this relatively minor storm.


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If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC - KV

Pile sand back on it, get a few more years. With sea level continuing to rise, it's inevitable, but delayable. Eventually, beach renourishment will not be enough and rules will change to allow armoring, then the complection of the beach and break will really change. How long? Seems like we're missing our window of opportunity to forestall more land ice melt so perhaps sooner rather than later. Jeckyll Island anyone? https://thebrunswicknews.com/n...b17b-92aeac4ae1cb.html

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add a signature since I'm here in profile anyway

Here are a couple of articles I wrote for FL Today, almost ten years ago...

Bring on the Sand

And a response to the criticism of that piece:

Holding the Line

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"It's always better than it looks from the crossover."

Edited: 11/19/2022 at 03:31 AM by slideaway

^yep. I've asked the Army Corps when they come back if they could please bury my head in the sand.

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add a signature since I'm here in profile anyway

And, just for reference, , , , , sea level has risen over 400 feet since the end of the last ice age and there is only a little bit more to go, , , , , , , , ,

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Dora Hates You

I like the mention of the storms strength, I hadn't even thought of that. Just imagine if it was a three or worse. The condos would be in the ocean right now.

We have lost this battle. I wonder when the higher-ups will realize this.

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I was right.

Sea level rose fast as climate changed fast and chaotically and the great ice sheets collapsed. Been pretty stable since. There's actually a little Silver Bluff in Miami-Coral Gables, including Fairchild Tropical Garden, from a post-ice age sea level stand that was a bit higher than present.

The end-Pleistocene rise was as much as something like 50 feet in 200 years, too fast for beaches to retreat

One curiosity is that, for reasons other than sea level rise, NC's Ocracoke Island was reduced to a sand bar for around 500 years, with the island growing back somewhat after Europeans had shown up. Might have been hit by a string of severe hurricanes?

The Nicole surf event had a long fetch due to the highly elongated shape of the storm, and came close to a spring tide, so it was a far bigger event than you'd expect from an ordinary cat. 1. Frances of 2004 was somewhat like that. Weak storm when it hit, but very large, and it had been much more intense.

Actually, we elect the higher-ups, and we keep choosing the same people over and over. That makes it our fault.

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I was right.

edit

Edited: 11/07/2023 at 06:35 PM by MyNameIsRobertPaulson

Think that Nicole's massive size & onshore wind field size/width was a major factor.. Water had effectively nowhere to go but up.. Also storm speed parallel to the shore..

If the field was not as wide, the water could have moved elsewhere along the beach..

Significant surges typically happen in bays and other areas where the water cant escape by moving laterally longshore drift..

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