Re: Dennis - damage reports
Walton Sun letter to the editor yesterday:
Since Tropical Storm Arlene, I?ve been receiving a lot of questions about our beaches and wanted to share what I learned during a recent TDC board meeting.
After Hurricane Ivan, the Walton County Transit Development Council used visitor dollars to replace approximately 450,000 cubic yards of sand, push sand back onto the dunes and purchase 900,000 sea oats to be planted this summer. These emergency measures served their purpose providing a reservoir of sand to be eroded instead of our natural dune system. Fortunately, Arlene, unlike Ivan, spared most of our dunes.
However, serious erosion occurred to our beaches. We lost several feet of sand exposing the black peat, which lies under our white sand beaches. The peat is the result of the cypress swamp that existed thousands of years ago where our beaches are located today. The county cannot bring in sand to cover the peat at this time due to state and federal, permitting that is difficult to obtain during turtle nesting season.
In addition, another storm would quickly wash the new sand out into the gulf and thousands of dollars later, we?d be in the same predicament. Since much of our sand is just offshore and a large amount of beach recovery should occur in the following weeks, the county is looking to develop more long term options.
Long term success is most often found through large scale beach restoration, they must be classified as ?critically eroded? by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Critical erosion is determined on a yearly basis and only 6.5 miles of beaches were deemed ?critically eroded prior to Ivan, the Florida DEP critical erosion draft report included approximately 11 miles of critically eroded beaches in Walton County. This allows more beaches in Walton County to be considered for a large scale beach restoration.
Of the original 6.5 miles, a 4.8 mile stretch of ?critically eroded? beach in Western Walton County is awaiting final permitting and we expect that restoration will begin this fall.
The County Commission and the TDC are scheduling workshops to discuss additional areas that could benefit from large scale restoration and to gauge the community?s interest in various options. Once the date is set, property owners, association managers and everyone with an interest in our beaches is encouraged to attend. In the meantime, the TDC will move forward on plans to enhance the dune system by planting more than 900,000 oats this summer. Ultimately, Mother Nature is the only one who can predict how quickly our beaches will begin to show improvement, but the TDC is working diligently to provide her a helping hand.
Maurice Gilbert, Chairman Walton County Tourist Development Council
Walton Sun letter to the editor yesterday:
Since Tropical Storm Arlene, I?ve been receiving a lot of questions about our beaches and wanted to share what I learned during a recent TDC board meeting.
After Hurricane Ivan, the Walton County Transit Development Council used visitor dollars to replace approximately 450,000 cubic yards of sand, push sand back onto the dunes and purchase 900,000 sea oats to be planted this summer. These emergency measures served their purpose providing a reservoir of sand to be eroded instead of our natural dune system. Fortunately, Arlene, unlike Ivan, spared most of our dunes.
However, serious erosion occurred to our beaches. We lost several feet of sand exposing the black peat, which lies under our white sand beaches. The peat is the result of the cypress swamp that existed thousands of years ago where our beaches are located today. The county cannot bring in sand to cover the peat at this time due to state and federal, permitting that is difficult to obtain during turtle nesting season.
In addition, another storm would quickly wash the new sand out into the gulf and thousands of dollars later, we?d be in the same predicament. Since much of our sand is just offshore and a large amount of beach recovery should occur in the following weeks, the county is looking to develop more long term options.
Long term success is most often found through large scale beach restoration, they must be classified as ?critically eroded? by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Critical erosion is determined on a yearly basis and only 6.5 miles of beaches were deemed ?critically eroded prior to Ivan, the Florida DEP critical erosion draft report included approximately 11 miles of critically eroded beaches in Walton County. This allows more beaches in Walton County to be considered for a large scale beach restoration.
Of the original 6.5 miles, a 4.8 mile stretch of ?critically eroded? beach in Western Walton County is awaiting final permitting and we expect that restoration will begin this fall.
The County Commission and the TDC are scheduling workshops to discuss additional areas that could benefit from large scale restoration and to gauge the community?s interest in various options. Once the date is set, property owners, association managers and everyone with an interest in our beaches is encouraged to attend. In the meantime, the TDC will move forward on plans to enhance the dune system by planting more than 900,000 oats this summer. Ultimately, Mother Nature is the only one who can predict how quickly our beaches will begin to show improvement, but the TDC is working diligently to provide her a helping hand.
Maurice Gilbert, Chairman Walton County Tourist Development Council
