Beach renourishment nears completion. It may have saved Anna Maria Island from Eta
As Tropical Storm Eta battered Manatee County on its way to landfall at Cedar Key, it may have been a $17.3 million beach renourishment project that protected Anna Maria Island from the total inundation of a storm surge.
Officials say this year’s project couldn’t have come at a better time. Crews are on track to finish laying 949,000 cubic yards of sand across a 5.5-mile stretch by Friday, regenerating a natural defense that protects the island from strong storms.
“Sandy beaches are the first line of defense to protect property, protect the time in which you can evacuate and the general prosperity of the island,” said Charlie Hunsicker, Manatee County’s director of parks and natural resources.
Work began on the renourishment project this summer, funded by tourist development taxes, as well as federal and state contributions.
“Whatever they did put on the beach probably helped the infrastructure. It was good timing,” said David Ruderman, corporate communications office public affairs specialist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is in charge of the project.
Previous storms have delivered storm surges that have covered streets from the Gulf of Mexico to Sarasota Bay, said Manatee County Marine Rescue Chief Joe Westerman.
“I didn’t see that this time,” Westerman said. “I really feel that if we hadn’t had the renourishment project, the effects of that storm would have been a lot greater than what we saw out on the island.”
In addition to the extra sand along the coast, Westerman attributed the the protection of the island to the higher level of the beach.
But Eta didn’t spare every home or business on the island. The storm surge is also responsible for at least one death. Longtime island resident, Mark Mixon, had gone to check on one of his rental properties in the 200 block of Bay Drive when he was electrocuted and killed because the water had reached the exposed wiring of a clothes dryer, charging the water with electricity.
On the beach, Westerman was concerned about how the two lifeguard towers located on the southern of Coquina Beach would fare in the storm. The renourishment project had not yet reached that end of the beach, so Westerman kept a close eye on them until about 45 minutes past high tide.
The two towers were under a foot of water at the height of the tidal surge.
“I feel that if the sand hadn’t been there in some of those locations, we could have lost some of those towers,” Westerman said. “Both of the towers were affected where we had to go out the next day, take off the stairs and re-level them.”
These issues don’t compare to what could have happened without shore protection, said Hunsicker, who pointed out that the county is lucky to be dealing with small issues and not devastating losses.
“We’re now talking today about how much sand we did lose instead of how much earth and soil of shoreline, how many linear feet of roadway or homes and businesses were lost to this storm,” Hunsicker explained. “That’s the tie-in that one only needs to think about if the beach hadn’t been there. The same will be true for any future storm from winter fronts all the way to major hurricanes.”
According to Ruderman, construction crews were not significantly impacted by the storm and still expect to meet the project deadline. A preliminary analysis also revealed that Eta did not wash away a significant amount of the newly placed sand.
Since 1992, Anna Maria Island has seen several beach renourishment projects. In order to replace the sand that is naturally pulled away from the shore by waves. Construction workers use dredging machinery to pump sand out from a borrow area 2,000 feet off the north end of the island.
This story was originally published November 18, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
