Some of you may not have a good grasp of the timeline of these events. Hurricane Ivan hit in late 2004 and altered the inlet significantly west. Worth Williams deposited about 25 dumptruck loads of sand in May of 2005, on the last day before turtle season, on a Sunday, in the rain, thus assuring that the sand would not be spread as was stipulated in the "permit" he was issue. He basically said "oops", and left his sand barrier in place. Thus, when Hurricane Dennis hit in 2005, it altered the flow of the inlet to the point it was undermining the house on the west side. Local's photos show that historically, the inlet never has gotten to the point of undermining this house, and indeed, the surrounding protective shrubbery was intact after Ivan, in his photos and mine. So, it seems like a fairly common sense assumption that since no other act of Mother Nature has undermined this house since the late seventies, that maybe this addition of sand, which may have been the only sand ever artificially added to this location, since the beginning of time, may have been a determining factor.
The owner of the house on the west side has made repeated offers to sell portions of his property to help the county fix this situation, if the owner on the east, Worth Williams, would sell equal portions of his property to help fix the situation. Mr. Williams has refused, and threatened lawsuit, if any of his sand is removed. Worth Williams has offered to sell his unbuildable property to the county for $3 million dollars.
