So declared Dennis Dare, a Manager of Ocean City, Maryland, after the conspiracy of a nor’easter and the remnant of tropical storm Ida wrought havoc along the coasts of the northeastern US over the last few days. His concern was well placed - much of the beach simply wasn’t there any more, instead there was a twelve-foot cliff marking the extent of relentless wave erosion. Ocean City engineer Terry McGean, after inspecting the scene, is reported as saying “We lost a lot of dune. We lost a fair amount of beach. We’ve seen worse. Certainly, the idea is that we lose sand and not buildings, so it did its job. Now we get everybody rolling to get it back together”; he went on to describe how when it comes time to reload the beach with sand next summer, it’s going to be more expensive and take more sand than they’d planned for. He said the beach lost between 25-50 percent of its dunes.
"Reload the beach" ? I suppose he must be referring to the time-honoured futility of beach nourishment.
The press reports contain many dramatic images and I shall simply reproduce some of my favourites here, with quotations from the accompanying descriptions.
“Coastal community leaders said Saturday they were crossing their fingers that the waves would send enough sand back up onto the beaches that human assistance wouldn’t be needed to finish the replenishment, shoring up the resorts in time for the economically vital summer.”
“In Delaware, tides washed out dunes, leaving several feet of water and 3 feet of sand along state Route 1. Transportation officials say it may take two days to clear the sand.”
“Several vessels carrying hazardous cargo broke loose from their moorings in Virginia during the storm. Crews were working to stabilize a 570-foot barge carrying containers of chemicals in the Sandbridge area of Virginia Beach. Work crews boarded the barge and were riding out the storm with it, hoping it would run aground and could be towed away when the weather improves. A similar fate awaits a 700-foot oil tanker that broke loose and ran aground on a sandbar in the James River in Newport News, Va.”
"But even if another storm were to hit today, the sand washed away from the dunes will still be of some help, creating a larger near-shore sandbar system that serves to break the waves’ energy as they pound the coast. That effect was apparent Friday afternoon, Tony Pratt, Delaware’s shorelines and waterway administrator said. “The waves really were breaking quite a distance from the dune by the end of the day … and losing a tremendous amount of their energy,” he said. ‘I like it better when the dune is whole, [but] that sand is still serving a great service. … It’s not like a total loss.’ "
“Beach replenishment is a costly endeavor. A project earlier this year in Dewey Beach alone cost $6 million. “We’re hopeful that Mother Nature will do her job,” said Carol Everhart, executive director of the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce. Since 2001, the Army Corps and others have spent $100 million pumping sand from the ocean onto Delaware’s beaches. Building sea walls will cost much more – a sea wall built in Galveston, Texas, cost $10,000 a foot.”
"State and local beach officials have credited the dunes with defending their towns’ homes and boardwalks from the storm’s wrath.
Taking an opposite view is Orrin H. Pilkey, emeritus professor in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University and author of “The Corps and the Shore” and this year’s “The Rising Sea,” which he co-authored.
Pilkey said it would be a huge error for Delaware to ignore science and not plan for the inevitable approach of climate change and rising seas. He pointed to the damaging Ash Wednesday storm of 1962, when the Army Corps of Engineers erected a dune along the shore in Ocean City, Md., and issued an advisory to restrict development inland of the protective barrier. But homes and hotels eventually moved oceanside, on top of and across the dune.
‘The town paid no attention to it – it had no teeth,’ Pilkey said. ‘Money speaks – so away we went.’ "
[I couldn’t possibly comment further on all this - the images and the quotations speak for themselves. Many of the images are from http://www.delawareonline.com/, and http://www.nj.com/, credits Patti Sapone, Robert Sciarrino, Chuck Snyder, Laura Emmons]
And, for Sand Puzzle #2, thanks to Jules, see the comments on Sand Puzzle #1
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