Nourished beaches working as expected, storms add more sand

Hurricanes Gustav and Ike brought great destruction to the areas where they made landfall, but the beaches of Walton County actually benefitted from the close calls.

"There has not been erosion caused by the storms," said Brad Pickel, consultant for beach management for the Walton County Tourist Development Council. "The large waves actually pushed sand up onto the beaches, the same thing happened with Hurricane Katrina."

The sand came from primarily two locations: from the wet sand area along the low part of the beach where the daily waves deposit sand and from the near-shore areas between the wet sandy beach and the offshore sand bars, according to Pickel.

"It pilled up sand at the toe of the dunes," said Susan Lucas, longtime Walton County resident and artist. "The level of the beach is higher in elevation than it used to be, by about two or three feet maybe."

Some of the tell-tell signs that the beaches gained sand include partially buried sea oats and trash receptacles, according to Lucas.

"It's a real pleasant surprise to see it left some," she said.

However, not every beach in Walton County received deposits of sand from the storms. According to Pickel, narrower beaches which were not previously restored did tend to have some erosion because there was not as much sand available to move landward.

"The two best examples were in Blue Mountain and Inlet Beach, where geotubes are exposed at the property adjacent to the east end of Rosemary Beach," Pickel said.

Still, about 80 to 90 percent of the beaches in South Walton gained sand from the storms, while county officials will continue to watch the narrower beaches going into the next storm.

"The re-nourished beaches are performing as expected," said Pickel. "While the rest still need to be re-nourished that were not previously done."