Last Updated: 3:04 p.m.
The long Nor’easter that sheared through the area in late September and early October caused enough damage to Flagler County beaches that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is inviting the county to apply for a renourishment of the 2.8 miles of shore the Corps renourished only last year.
The county could be eligible for an emergency renourishment that would be 100 percent paid for with federal funds. But the county is required to take a few steps first to ensure that the project is evaluated by the Corps, starting with a letter to the federal agency stating the county wishes to proceed. The letter’s deadline is Dec. 12.
Flagler Beach City Manager Dale Martin asked County Administrator Heidi Petito in an email whether the county is going to send in the letter. He has not heard back. A FlaglerLive email to Petito asking the same question went unanswered. In mid-afternoon today, after this article appeared, Commissioner Andy Dance confirmed that the county intended to send in the letter.
Jason Harrah, the senior project manager at the Corps who’s shepherded Flagler County’s renourishment for two decades, wrote Flagler County and Flagler Beach officials on Nov. 20 inviting them to send in a written request for renourishment “if you believe the erosion damages to your project could qualify for rehabilitation assistance and …if a ‘potential’ renourishment construction contract is something you wish to pursue/assist with.”
After the Nor’easter, which barreled through Florida for over a week starting at the end of September, county officials surveyed all 18 miles of shoreline, documenting the extent of the damage in every segment. They found mild to moderate to severe damage across all 18 miles. (See: “Nor’easter Damage to Flagler’s Beaches, Neighborhood By Neighborhood: Emergency Dunes Are No Longer Enough.”)
In the Hammock, where the county had just started rebuilding dunes in the latest of many emergency projects, the storm took out half the new sand the county had just dropped. Certain areas, like Marineland, Marineland Acres, MalaCompra Park and Painters Hill were not as heavily damaged. But Varn Park and Beverly Beach’s shoreline was, as was the stretch the Army Corps had rebuilt south of the pier.
There, the storm took out well over half the sand that the renourishment had dumped, leaving tall “scarps” behind, those Cliffs-of-Dover-like white drops that outline the extent of the knife-like erosion of the dunes. The scarps in Beverly Beach are around 8 feet high. Most of the sand that had buried the huge secant seawall in northern Flagler Beach is gone, exposing the rock revetments beneath. The scarps in the Army Corps zone are about 6 feet high in some areas, and up to 3 feet in others.
The beach is not back to its critically eroded state. There is still a wide sandy beach stretch, particularly at low tide, but it is a far cry from a year ago, when the beaches stretched about the length of a football field from the dune line to the waterline.
There, the $27 million renourishment–the first in the county’s history–that took place in August 2024 dredged 1.3 million cubic yards of sand from a borrow pit 11 miles offshore to rebuild 2.8 miles of beach under the federal contract, and an additional half mile or so under a county contract. The sand recreated a beach that had long been eroded (the area was considered “critically eroded,” as are other segments of Flagler County’s shore) and rebuilt solid, ample dunes.
The renourished beach was originally intended to last 11 years. At least that’s what Flagler County believed when it signed the contract in 2019. Even as the sand was rebuilding the beach in 2024, that 11-year timeline no longer applied. Officials were estimating that another renourishment would be necessary within six years.
While no one explicitly talked of an emergency renourishment being necessary just a year after the beach was rebuilt, Harrah had warned all along that a newly renourished beach might need two or three successive renourishments for the sand to set in, especially on a “sediment-starved” beach like Flagler Beach’s, as County Coastal Engineer Ansley Wren-Key describes it. A beach does not only need the sand you see on the beach. To be healthy, it needs enough sand that washes in and out beneath the surf to keep the beach healthy.
The Army Corps stretch of 2.8 miles had neither. When it was rebuilt, the new sand accounted for the shoreline, but sediment was still lacking in the surf, even though a portion of the visible sand was expected to be washed out to build up that bank beneath the surf. The September storm proved too severe to leave enough behind.
Martin alerted the Flagler Beach City Commission of the Corps’ invitation last Thursday. “The Corps of Engineers has likely determined that the nor’easters have triggered a replenishment of the sand,” he said. He’d spoken with Harrah the day Harrah sent the letter. The emergency renourishment would be “a long, drawn-out process,” he said, so that there may be no new sand on the beach until a year from now (by which time yet more storms may cause additional damage.)
The Harrah letter notes that the process could be expedited if Flagler County were to conduct a survey of the sands, which would cost $25,000. The city commission appeared uninterested in footing that bill. Martin also asked Petito about whether the county was interested in doing that. The survey is not a requirement, however.
“So we’ll wait and see what we hear,” Martin said.
PaulT says
‘On a hiding to nothing’ is the only way to describe this perpetual beach replenishment progtam.
john stove says
OMG…the actual definition of Insanity….”Doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results”!!!!
Enough with the dredge and fill “re-nourishment”…..armor the shoreline with seawall and wave action impeding structures and be done with it. Talk about a waste of money for the taxpayers.
ENOUGH!
Robin says
Hardened shorelines don’t work. Look at what has happened north of Marineland and Summerhaven
DP says
Not being able to read or see the full email sent to the city and county from the corps. It would be hard to not pass up the opportunity. But knowing FC they will screw it up, and not send a request. I say it, as the commission can’t even come to a solution to keep the beaches renourished. Time will tell !!!!!
Bill says
Hahaha so you’re reliant on a felon who murders people and starves children for money. They will care about your beach as much as they care about the dozens of children victims . Not at all!
Deborah Coffey says
LOL. This is the “DOGE” getting rid of WASTE that Trump promised????!! Spending millions over and over again because the MAGAs have “climate change derangement syndrome?”
Sherry says
@ Deborah. . . Loving the “Climate Change Derangement Syndrome” THANG! Very well said! “CCDS”!
But, wait a minute. . . since the Maga Lord and Master, trump, says Climate Change is a Hoax, the Flagler Beach dune washing away couldn’t have happened at all. Don’t believe your lyin’ eyes! Just get new fake gold colored Maga “Alternate Reality” glasses! Sold on the Fox Propaganda Faux News show and fine “Family Dollar” outlets everywhere!
R Keller says
Put in jetty’s, only hope.
MITCH says
Very expensive to fight Mother Nature with taxpayers’ money. Remember that!
Mothersworry says
While all the hand wring about the beach washout, take a look at south of the water tower. The seawall was installed and then back filled, the dunes were built back and grass and palm trees planted. But no beach re nourishment. The beach that the county was supposed to fund until it didn’t. Now the seawall is exposed in numerous places and been back filled in approximately 15 places.
This was only a storm not a hurricane. By now I would think that most would agree that the sand just isn’t making it. How about a jetty or breakwater? Something that will stand up and remove some of the velocity from the waves.
JimboXYZ says
Having grown up on Volusia County, surfing over decades. A Nor’Easter is no slouch of a storm when they come thru. Gordon Lightfoot wrote a song about the Great Lakes of Michigan & Superior storms that sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald. The rip currents & tides an Atlantic Nor’Easter will drown the best of swimmer’s, take the best of surfer’s out to sea. The movie “Perfect Storm” was based upon the 1991 boat & crew (Andrea Gail) that perished in 1991. Just me, some easily rival tropical storms & hurricanes, they also seem to last for days for the misery it brings for a weather system. Call it a Winter January Tropical Storm/Hurricane, only because the weather people closed the season Nov. 30 every year too soon for that freak storm. HS years, Port Orange & Spruce Creek, our Marine Science class booked a fishing charter in a Nor’Easter waste of time to fish in that washing machine off the coast of Ponce Inlet. The charter was the SS Dolphin charter port of call at the north side foot of the Dunlawton Draw Bridge before it became the highrise bridge it is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nor'easter#List_of_notable_nor'easters
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Perfect_Storm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Halloween_nor%27easter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Perfect_Storm_(film)
Laurel says
You want me to write the letter? I’ll write the damn letter!
So, a little bird told my husband, who told me, that the county beach needs to be built out further than the county wants to proceed with. By building out further, the sand has a better chance of evading the White Cliffs of Dover effect. But, that would cost more money up front. So, we’re subjected to the MSBU to pay and pay, from here on out, which will inevitably increase.
Also, my husband and I talked to a man whose family owns a couple of houses on the beach since the 1960’s. The county put in sheathing, and built up sand behind his family’s property, and a neighbor’s property. It was very expensive, and the homes directly benefiting from the procedure had to pay the county back over time. He said that since then, the sand washes out during summer storms, and the nor’easters put it back. Maybe the county should pay attention to some of the old timers here, and stop trying to reinvent the wheel (and make it square).
It seems that Petito and Hansen are dead set on assessing those of us who supposedly have a “direct benefit” by charging us an ever increasing “special assessment” (MSBU). I would like Petito, and Hansen, to explain how those of us a mile from the ocean, and right on the ICW (where the water rises dramatically during a storm) will get a direct benefit from this special assessment. I’m not sure this is legal! The government staff cannot make up a scenario and call it a “direct benefit”. Prove it! Where are the facts surrounding this assessment? What is the background? Where is the report that shows exactly how all our individual properties will directly benefit from this special assessment.
Well, Hansen’s leaving, and doesn’t live in the Hammock, and Petito? She doesn’t live here either.
This county…
FedUp says
Only a fool wouldn’t see this coming and it was only a northeaster.
Sand thru the hourglass says
Great idea ……. don’t fix it just throw more sand into the ocean
JimboXYZ says
$ 25K to determine from an assessment study where that football field of beach renourishing project effort went to ? I would suspect a lot of it is a new elevation of a sandbar for the tides & surf to break on. Some it may have shifted enough to alter plans for the pier rebuild ? There seems to be no solution here for the long term, that decade contracts are inadequate to eventually get to a beach that is sufficient to withstand a storm, be it a Nor’easter, Tropical Storm or Cat “N” hurricane. This season that has 5 days left in it, we were fortunate to have been spared from the activity of a TS => Cat 5/6 that either passed by offshore or was a direct landfall of a hit. It might take a continuous effort to continue to rebuild decades of erosion & for sediment & enough elevation for the modern era sea level rises ? Doing it once & expecting that to hold up for 10-11 years to get to the next contracted beach rebuild was quite optimistic, approaching more of a wishful thinking as a fool’s errand ?
I just don’t see a quick & dirty approach for sea walls and surf barriers that are likely to alter the existing beach as unusable ? A mess until enough sediment accumulates in a hope to extend the continental shelf of FL’s entire east coast. It was bad here in Flagler County, even worse in Volusia County ? Recent drive thru the Tomoka Loop, repaved roads, Highbridge serviced for maintenance, a full moon cycle for King Tides and the newly repaved roads of the Loop will erode as the banks of the marsh continue to experience flooding. Logic of a sane person of any scientific approach, the Earth is covered by 3/4 of Oceans, FL is a Peninsula that stands zero chance of slowing to remain the as much land area & elevation. Beach front properties command absurd prices for worth. A few weeks out of the year it’s not worth anything, it’s both fragile & expensive properties. Having been to NE Volusia to Granada Ave, I have never seen so many properties up for sale on A1A & John Anderson. Astonishes me that they continue to enhance A1A North of Granada into slower pedestrian friendly traffic. The East side there is a golf course, homes & condos. The former Hawaiian Tropic estate is simply overpriced and washing away to be rebuilt. The masses don’t have the resources to rebuild that every storm season for the wealthiest, not with inflation still near Bidenomics level s of an economy that was enabled by the DC Swamp of Democrats. Trump has tried slowing that inflation at the cost of unemployment & the usual smoke & mirrors that the Ivy League economists as self- proclaimed experts at. Can’t grow, grow, grow for tax base revenue and destroy the very land this growth is expected to inhabit. That’s where we are. Inflation this year hit the Mega Millions Lottery game, that ‘s now a $ 5 inflationary. The poor can’t even afford to get struck by lightning for a Mega Millions ticket for what most likely is the same losing ticket for the lottery ?
Anyone live long enough, the properties west of I-95 to US-1 become beach front property ? Try not to blame the boomers or any other generations after for it. They’ll have to teach this in the schools for those that take Marine Science, that’s if anyone’s paying attention in K-12 schools. I took Marine Science at Spruce Creek, did well in it. Often times regret not having pursued a degree in that. Basic understanding of the the ecosystem. There weren’t any solutions back then either. But at least I could understand wha was coming scientifically with some technical jargon.
Living in Miami, would never go back there. Surprised I ended up back in Volusia/Flagler areas. I’ll expire here, maybe something left to pass onto heirs ? Then again, see the handwriting on the wall, sell off & leave it in the form of cash or investments and relocate to the mountains to live out last days with the clothes on my back ? sorry to paint the dismal picture. In a lot of areas, it’s not that bad for flooding. The flooding is more about new residential construction that channels flood water into/onto pre-existing homeowners. A lot of it is rental properties. the renters, those folks have mobility. The rental property owners are either selling off or sticking it out with a mortgage, content with Rental Income ?
JW says
Do we understand repairing is something very different than investing in our future (including jetty’s for example). We should teach this in schools! As far as the military goes, changing the Department of Defense into Department of War tells you where our priorities are. Also, let’s look outside our “windows” and learn how other countries handle this. I have heard that, a few years ago, Florida Congress has sent representatives to the Netherlands to understand what they do. But I guess this was just a nice trip because they found out that the Netherlands (about the size of Florida) INVESTS enormous amounts in water management (sorry, we can not afford that). You can learn about this on the internet!
We keep telling ourselves that we are the greatest nation on the planet? Let’s start with EDUCATION and we will talk again.
Dennis C Rathsam says
#1 TRUMP has nothing to do with Flagler, I doubt he even knows it exists….DA! Like I said yrs ago, after the hurricane wiped out the beach. The only way to fix this is to buy out all these homes that were built too close to the beach, knock them down, kill the street & fix the beach the right way. You can have shops, & a beautifull sidewalk for folks to access the water.What they are proposing now is fools gold! How many times has the Corps of Engeneers failed us?????
Ed says
I’m from a small town in Connecticut. Much like Flagler Beach. They fixed thier Beach erosion issues in the 50s and haven’t needed any renovation work or additional sand in over 70 years now.
Build a seawall,jetties & a breakwater 3 miles off shore.
Damm it worked once maybe it’s worth looking into ??
FlaglerLive says
Ed, Can you tell us the name of the town?
Laurel says
A couple things you want to know first:
Connecticut has a lot of coastline that goes inland, which allows for debris to build up. My friend lives there and won’t go on the water with all the debris. Also, we cannot have a seawall here as we have turtles nesting each year.
Mothersworry says
That isn’t ocean that is all the crap from Long Island and NYC fouling the coast line.
Breakwaters are used along the coast of MA without much of a problem for years.
Pogo says
@FWIW
Three blind wise men describe hearing the sea — for the first time…
https://www.google.com/search?q=Connecticut+beach+erosion+history
Ralph Chianelli says
A few years ago, there was a documentary program about rising seas; “Sinking Cities” described Tokyo, New York City, London and Miami. It described the efforts, both disturbingly similar to what is being done now and not working, to some very creative and not terribly expensive but quite effective.
The one that most impressed me was from a young lady engineer who came up with the idea of “living Breakwaters”; a non-corroding square basket (of varying sizes, as needed) that were seeded with mussels, clams, oysters and other living sea creatures. These baskets would be anchored to the seabed floor. As many as needed would be stacked and set in pods or rows that would have the effect of altering the current to minimize erosion of the shoreline.
One of the beautiful features of this design is that they can be moved as needed to help mitigate shore erosion.
I don’t know if anyone has studied the shore currents but it seems that some areas are damaged more than others, meaning the currents in the areas less damaged are altered in such a way as to leave most shore sand in its place.
Worth considering …
Laurel says
Ralph Chianelli: Yes, it is very much worth considering! So good to hear something different, that may have real potential.
Do you remember who the lady engineer was, or where you got the information? Would be great if you could post it here.
RK says
What is a groyne?
A groyne is a structure built from the shore out into the sea to reduce longshore drift and prevent beach erosion. They are typically made from materials like wood, rock, or sometimes concrete and metal.
How does a groyne work?
A groyne works by interrupting and reducing longshore drift, the process that moves sand and sediment along the shoreline. By sticking out into the sea, it acts like a barrier, catching and holding the sand on one side, helping to build up the beach and prevent erosion.