Pensacola Beach Erosion
Pensacola Beach has a different shape this fall, after several weeks of the Gulf re-claiming its sand, or, at least shifting it around. Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike seemed to have left their mark on our beautiful beaches. There are four, seven, and even some ten-foot drops on the east side of the island:
I’m curious to see what the future holds. Will the SRIA somehow bring sand in, or reshape the beach? Will the beaches take their normal, flat shape again over time? Leave a comment if you have any input on this:
The walkway near my home is officially closed now, due to the big drop off at the end of it:
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Terrific photos! … There’s a lot of short term tricks, and I know down here in Naples there was a major beach renourishment project when I first arrived in 1998-2000 … but the only long-run answer is “global cooling.” Fortunately, that’s exactly what the 2008 installment of the Old Farmer’s Almanac is predicting. Here’s to wishful thinking!
We went swimming this past Sunday @ Casino and my daughter noticed that the water was a little deep right when she stepped in. There is also a big mountain of sand piled up @ that beach…. I think they might be using it to fill up the parts of the beach that really need it…..
I was lucky enough to visit your wonderful beach way back in 2001, when they had just moved in all the wonderful new white sand. At that time we had seen 8 to 10 ft drop offs like what you are seeing now. We spent hours walking up and down the beach pulling whole sand dollars and beautiful shells out of the sides of the wall of sand. (we only kept a few) but there was an abundance, have you seen alot of shells and such stuck in the walls of sand? Just curious. Really enjoy the pictures of the best beach in the world!
Joan, I haven’t found any shells yet in the walls of sand, but I haven’t been looking. Perhaps I’ll see what I can find when I take my afternoon walk- Thanks!
The abundance of shells,etc were there in 2001 because that sand came from a long way off shore. This erosion is just what the storms are creating from the beach sand….hopefully, the winter winds/water will renourish the beach the natural way!!!
[…] smile every time I walk out to the beach now that they’ve fixed our neighborhood walkway. Erosion from the passing of Gustav caused the dune under the walkway to wash out, and the SRII boarded it up. Well, as of a few weeks […]