Ian takes a big bite out of South Beaches but spares most Space Coast shoreline

Jim Waymer
Florida Today
A treasure hunter looking for goodies after the storm. The south beaches suffered severe erosion from Ian. Coconut Point Park lost a lot of dunes.

While Hurricane Ian spared most of the Brevard County coastline from the ravages of wind, rain and high water, the storm took a larger-than-expected bite out of stretches of the South Beaches area.

By late Friday, as Ian's roughed-up surf receded, the erosion of sand and dunes along the South Beaches had gotten substantially worse, county officials said. 

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The south beaches suffered severe erosion from Ian. Coconut Point Park lost a lot of dunes.

"There are areas, particularly in the 6000 block, where the erosion is now approaching severe," Mike McGarry, Brevard's beach renourishment coordinator, said via email. 

County officials planned to inspect the beaches this week to assess the damages.

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"The various beach projects provided the buffer needed to protect the infrastructure behind them," McGarry added. "The Brevard “federal” (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) projects all suffered some erosion on the eastern side of the beach berm, but the beaches performed as designed. These include the North Reach, Mid Reach and South Reach."

Tides will bring some of the sand swept just offshore in the storm back to the beach, he added, and any shortfall will be replaced in future beach nourishment projects. "We will document the losses for our federal partners to assure appropriate action is taken if needed."

McGarry said he received photos from Satellite Beach — one of the shorelines at greatest risk of erosion — that showed the beach held up well.

By the time Ian reached Brevard, it had weakened to a tropical storm, pushing up only about a foot or two of storm surge.

The south beaches area of Brevard County suffered severe erosion from Ian.

For the Zorzis, who live along the 3100 block of South State Road A1A, south of Melbourne Beach, Ian was basically a wash. 

"The beach was actually added to the night of the storm, and the following night it was all gone," Warren Zorzi said, adding that there were "a lot of turtle eggs flying around all over the place."

But the shoreline near his house looks about the same as it did before Ian.

"The dune stopped perfectly where it was," he said.

The south beaches suffered severe erosion from Ian. Coconut Point Park lost a lot of dunes.

Read more: Caribbean delivers more beach seaweed to snarl Space Coast surf zones

Brevard County officials: urge residents to continue to preparing for severe weather

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Brevard County beach rebuilding projects

https://www.brevardfl.gov/NaturalResources/Beaches/RestorationProjects

Jim Waymer is an environment reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Waymer at 321-261-5903 or jwaymer@floridatoday.com. Or find him on Twitter: @JWayEnviro or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/jim.waymer

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