Destin Dennis Pictures

[CBulla]

Why rebuild the beach? Its a natural course of events. If the islands hadn't been built on to begin with, the erosion and damage really would be negligable.

Ah well, maybe they'll spend 18 million on renourishment like Venice Beach just did to have 10% of it washed away 2 weeks after completion!

BTW Sea Yoda - Most excellent to see you made it through without harm!

 

[SeaYoda]

SeaYoda, can you tell me what is done, if anything to repair the damage to the beach? That's some pretty deep erosion.......the old men with black socks and metal detectors are NOT going to be able to climb back up that.

Any links to sites that talk about it?

They have been battling over property rights for years as to who "owns" the beach. Some re-nourishment has taken place, but that all lies at the bottom of the Gulf right now. They were going to dredge the Destin pass (near the jetties where we dive) this fall and use that sand to help. The legal battles may be over by then. They will still need more sand if they want to fix this mess. For some reason, probably "environmental", they don't want to dredge along the beach and recreate the trough that used to be there before Opal hit in '95. I don't think turtles are the issue this time because there will be no beach for them to nest on if something is not done. I'm not much of a beach sitter so as long as I can get to the water I'm happy. There are probably several sites that talk about the beach issue here, but the issue never gets resolved so I don't pay attention much. The Destin Log (local newspaper) should have several articles in their on-line archives. You may have to subscribe to see them, I'm not sure.

...Just curious, how bad does viz get? Was 20-30 before, but a week after down to bad Venice conditions? What is viz usually? ...

Viz was still being affected from Ivan 10 months ago so I guess it will be stirred up again. We have a lot of limestone here and it causes the water to silt if disturbed like this. The viz changes greatly here - it will range from 5' to 80'. Normal is 20'-30'.


Thanks everybody for welcoming me home!

 

[kylepreid]

Sorry to see your swim hole in such bad shape, I hope that things will come around soon. Now you need to come to atlanta to do some real diving HA HA.

 

[mike_s]

crazy question here......

but the beach chair companies that rent the chairs and umbrellas out have
those plywood boxes they store the chaires/umbrellas in.

Do they come remove those chairs and umbrellas (and the boxes) before the storm?
If not, I don't see how'd they be left since the sand is missing where the
chair boxes were located.

 

[pennypue]

Why rebuild the beach? Its a natural course of events. If the islands hadn't been built on to begin with, the erosion and damage really would be negligable.

Ah well, maybe they'll spend 18 million on renourishment like Venice Beach just did to have 10% of it washed away 2 weeks after completion!

BTW Sea Yoda - Most excellent to see you made it through without harm!

Colin, I did not ever suggest that it should be done. I asked IF and WHAT they do.

And I expressed some concern for the snazzily dressed old men (zero concern for those in speedos.....)

What is renourishment, how is it accomplished? And does it cause any additional damage?

Thanks Yoda, I'll google for the newspaper site. Hopefully it will point me to some additional sites on it too.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Renourishment is usually a process where they dredge sand from one place(the pass, a bit offshore, ect) and pump it onto the beach and then level it off with construction equipment. The dredging process can damage dive sites while they suck the sand from an area around/on them. Lots of the shallower(shore) sites can easily get covered up when they pump the sand back on the beach(like the boneyards right off the beaches in Venice).

Great pics SeaYoda, I haven't seen much of the beaches shown on the news so this is really the first look I've had of the area.

I think a bunch of us dove the jetties 2 weeks after Ivan, vis was down to 5' and there was alot of particle in the water, but we had alotta fun. It won't be long before everyone is diving the jetties again after this storm.

 

[SeaYoda]

... And does it cause any additional damage?...

It depends on who you talk to. It will change the environment for critters (for better or worse is another point of argument) and will empty someone's pockets for the project. Viz for divers can be messed up during the process - since sand is what they want, the water should calm down pretty quick after they stop sucking it up. Whether the whole process works or is a never ending battle is out for a vote too. All I know is that since I first came here in '97 the beach has steadily eroded back to the point of endangering dwellings and businesses that once were back a distance from the water - I'm glad I'm not rich enough to own one.

 

[pennypue]

It depends on who you talk to. It will change the environment for critters (for better or worse is another point of argument) and will empty someone's pockets for the project. Viz for divers can be messed up during the process - since sand is what they want, the water should calm down pretty quick after they stop sucking it up. Whether the whole process works or is a never ending battle is out for a vote too. All I know is that since I first came here in '97 the beach has steadily eroded back to the point of endangering dwellings and businesses that once were back a distance from the water - I'm glad I'm not rich enough to own one.

Hee hee hee, you and me both!

I had read some interesting stuff once about how barrier islands 'move'.

Seems that it is a losing battle with time, weather and elements. I didn't realize that the BoneYard could be covered up by a renourishment project. Somehow I just pictured that it would be dumped on the beach. But I guess that would end up leveling out into the water too.

Any idea how long it takes to 'rebuild' the beach?
I'm guessing that diving just before the do so would be pretty interesting since you might get to see some things that will be covered and gone.

I used to be really big on nice beaches. Now I could care less, I just want IN the water, not on the beach.

 

[mrfish87]

There is nothing to renourish the barrier islands naturally with all the levees here in Louisiana. That is why we are totally screwed if the New Orleans area ever gets hit by a storm such as Ivan or even Dennis. We sink barges full of rock off the beaches to try to stop some of the wave action from totally destroying the islands. But even little storms like Cindy and Arlene can play hell with the islands. Several of our isl;ands were washed away last year during Ivan and others a cut in half or eroded away. Thise pics of the beack in Destin ar crazy. A friend of mine had a video taken right after Opal and it was crazy...there were still the walkovers that went over the dunes but the dunes were missing. My family has been going to Destin since 1979 and last month the beach was really shrinking or just gone from Ivan and the were no grasses or sea oats left. We even had a tidal "river" running down the beach and that has not happend in 26 years of going there. I can only imagine what it looks like now. Hopefully the storms will stay in the Atlantic but it appears TS Emily is sniffing for Gulf blood. We can all hope for the best.

 

[FSUgly]

I'll add that I'm glad to hear that you and your family made it through the storm w/o any problems, too, SeaYoda.

We had nothing more than some heavy downpours and decent winds blowing around. A couple coastal towns south of here by 20-30 miles were flooded by tidal surges (St Marks was one that has been on the news). So we were lucky again

Anyways, so diving the Jetties in 2 weekends is probably not a good thing? I had been thinking of coming over to do that before the storm hit. And, of course, thats assuming Emily, or the one behind her, don't make it here by then. Whaddaya think? Dive it, or don't dive it? Anybody want to join me?