What happened to St. Andrews State Park?

[Waterwulf]

The last time I was in Saint Andrews State Park by Panama City Florida , was in about 1975 or so. It had a large rock jetty that went out several hundred yards into the Gulf and then circled around back to land. It encircled a very large area, maybe eight acres or so. It had a "short pass" in the Gulf side that was low enough to allow water to water to flow thru but not boats. Inside was a swimming/diving area but the best dive was around the outside edge.

We just recently bought a motorhome and are planning some trips, one of which will be to the Keys. I was planning our route down thru Florida with stops at the dive-able fresh water springs and remembered the great diving at Saint Andrews Park. I was looking at the satellite view and found the park but the big beautiful rock jetty is gone!!!!! What happened to the rock jetty?

 

[Johnoly]

2018 Hurricane Micheal, 160mph winds, CAT 4 massive storm. Can your motorhome do 160, lol?
But you might be looking an old picture because 2 years ago they were doing some limited rebuilding around the park.

 

[Waterwulf]

2018 Hurricane Micheal, 160mph winds, CAT 4 massive storm. Can your motorhome do 160, lol?
But you might be looking an old picture because 2 years ago they were doing some limited rebuilding around the park.

Uhhmm no my motorhome can't do 160 but my Rat Rod Rail can!!

Those boulders were the size of cars and there were hundreds of them! What did they do with them? They had to have hauled them off someplace because there's no way the storm did it even if it did have 160 mph winds. That jetty was ten feet high at the shoreline.

 

[RyanT]

They had to have hauled them off someplace because there's no way the storm did it even if it did have 160 mph winds. That jetty was ten feet high at the shoreline.

You'd be surprised. In 1995, hurricane Opal moved a tug, that was sitting in 110' of water, nearly a 1/4 mile. Big waves can move very large objects.

 

[Waterwulf]

You'd be surprised. In 1995, hurricane Opal moved a tug, that was sitting in 110' of water, nearly a 1/4 mile. Big waves can move very large objects.

I lived many years on the Florida Gulf Coast and went thru quite a few Hurricanes. I've seen what they can do. A Hurricane could have destroyed the Jetties but couldn't have caused hundreds of car sized boulders to vanish.

 

[tarponchik]

This was discussed several times, like here, for example.

 

[Waterwulf]

We must be talking about different places. The Saint Andrews State Park in the mid 70's had an area in the Gulf that was enclosed by a giant U shaped jetty. The jetty was made from car sized boulders and stuck up above the high tide by about ten feet except for the shallow pass at the Gulf side. There may have been a pass thru to the Bay outside of that area but there was no pass or Kiddie Pool inside the jetty berm. I'm contacting the City there to get some info.

 

[astr0b0y]

Little car sized boulders are easy enough for strong storms to move.

Massive 600-Ton Boulders Can Be Moved by Powerful Storm Waves, Study Says | The Weather Channel

Boulders were moved up to nearly 100 feet above high waters and up to almost 730 feet inland. - Articles from The Weather Channel | weather.com

weather.com

 

[Waterwulf]

I know that wind and waves can move huge boulders but it could not make hundreds of them just simply vanish! I have some inquiries in with Panama city officials and the parks department. I'm also looking over my old photo's to see if I have any from there. It used to be a great dive spot.

 

[Waterwulf]

Well, I got an answer back from somebody there about the St. Andrews State Park and it actually makes sense. (Thanks Todd at Red Alert Diving!) Apparently, my memory is slightly faulty as to the direction that the rock enclosed pool faced. It wasn't South. It was East. It's what is known now as The Kiddie Pool or Tidal pool. Per Todd: "The beach moved around it and changed it quite a bit". Then sometime in history, the Army Corp of Engineers must have pulled up a bunch of the boulders and moved them into piles inside the swim area as artificial reefs. On the satellite view, you can still see the remnants of the old wall. Now I know!