Helene tore away the emergency ramp from Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel also hit

Hurricane Helene had a lot to offer even here in Southwest Florida.

Beaches have been cleared of sand, and now places like Fort Myers Beach are even more vulnerable to future tropical storms and hurricanes.

“(The berm) worked as well as it could,” said Chadd Chustz, environmental project manager for Fort Myers Beach. “This was obviously catastrophic and the (storm surge) height was well above the embankment.”

The city built the $10 million emergency dam to help the island better weather tropical systems.

So the money wasn’t wasted. Instead, the berm absorbed some of the wave action.

“It does use energy, but it washed away a lot of the water that was left as sand on Estero Boulevard,” Chustz said. “And we will sift out the debris and bring it back to the beach.”

Fort Myers Beach was devastated by Hurricane Ian two years ago and the city had to build a shelter.

The majority of the $10 million to build the berm came from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), with the state of Florida picking up the rest of the bill.

More: Officials: There is no danger of the historic Sanibel Lighthouse falling into the Gulf after Helene

Additionally, the city was in the middle of a cleanup project that was postponed for at least a few days.

“We did what we could, but the beach is obviously very low lying and hasn’t been renovated in over a decade,” Chustz said. “And between Ian, Idalia (in 2023) and now Helene, it’s been vulnerable. There are some parts of the beach that are barely above the water table, so we are vulnerable.”

Helene caused six-foot waves on the island for most of the day on Thursday, and flooding continued into Friday.

So much mud has been kicked up along Florida’s west coast that it shows up in satellite images as murky water stretching from southwest Florida to the Panhandle.

The strong surf and onshore wind push most of the berm up and onto Estero Boulevard.

There are some challenges in Fort Myers Beach because the island is large and has a variety of landscapes, from the urbanized area around Times Square to the relatively remote and isolated coastal nesting bird sanctuary at the southern end of the island.

During Helene, barges were brought into Hurricane Pass

Chustz said the barges used for the beach renourishment project were moved to protected waters during the storm.

“They were hiding in Hurricane Pass,” he said. “This has put us a little behind schedule and now the engineer will carry out an assessment of the island.”

More: Live from Fort Myers Beach: Officials say Hurricane Helene’s wave is a concern

Fort Myers Beach wasn’t the only barrier island affected.

In April, Sanibel completed a beach restoration project that built a seawall along most of the island’s shoreline, said the city’s natural resources director, Holly Milbrandt. Crews also filled the gaps left by Hurricane Ian’s outgoing power, she said. Then came Tropical Storm Debby in August, which pushed much of the sand back into the dune area, Milbrandt said.

Now: “We’re out there evaluating what we’ve seen from Helene… At this point, we’re still trying to get out and look around,” she said. “The roads are flooded, all of our nature reserves are flooded, all of our beach parking lots are flooded (so) it’s difficult for us to get out when emergency relief is still underway.”

Milbrandt said Sanibel’s unique geography, with an east-west swing angle, has typically had a positive impact on the island.

In general, she said, “Our beaches are very, very stable, whereas many of the barrier islands on the Gulf Coast that lie north to south have experienced a lot more erosion than we have.”

As for the official height of the storm surge: “I haven’t seen anything from the National Weather Service yet, but our best reading comes from the sensor the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation has in Tarpon Bay.”

The highest during the storm was between 2½ and 3 feet, she said. “But this is a tidal wave on top of a normal flood,” she said. “And if you add wind, you could certainly have seen much higher water levels.”

The Captiva Erosion Prevention District said the storm damage was “enormous” and resulted in the erosion of beaches and dunes. A virtual emergency board meeting was held Monday evening.

Helene tore away the emergency ramp from Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel also hit

ByJasper

During Helene, barges were brought into Hurricane Pass

By Jasper

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