Swell from Imelda and Humberto

[johndiver999]

From an oceanographic/natural history point of view. Without the jetties, and without constant dredging, the ocean would close all these inlets rapidly. The giant offset of the shoreline that occurs when comparing northside of jetties to southside of jetties would disappear(sediment transport is north to south). Lake Worth Lagoon, would actually become a true lagoon. Same for Indian River Lagoon. The only communication would be during large wave events over flowing into the lagoon, and large rain events overflowing into the ocean. There would be occassional breakthroughs that would close up just as fast as they opened up. BTW, I am not suggesting a course of action here, just interesting to see what nature does when left to its own devices, without anthropogenic intervention.

Or as @Divin'Papaw wrote, "that pesky sand. Never likes to stay in one place for long"

I seem to remember a scientific presentation on the area which indicated that natural inlets open up in the barrier islands and they remain there for quite some time, presumably until a strong hurricane occurs. Supposedly this is why the barrier is land is not uniformly narrow but has random wide areas which were formed when the natural inlets formed and maintained themselves for quite some time. But the over all idea was that these estuarine connections were `relatively long-term connections, rather than short lived.