Change is the character of barrier islands. Wind and waves continuously transfer their sand, rendering their shapes fluid. Storms carve paths by way of them. They migrate, develop, shrink and generally disappear fully.

Life on lots of Pinellas County’s barrier islands, like others the place people have constructed houses and industries, represents a relentless battle in opposition to nature. Sea partitions have been constructed round them in an try to wrangle them into static shapes. Sand has been pumped there at common intervals for the previous few a long time: To the federal authorities, the method is essential to bolstering the seashores’ skill to guard infrastructure from storms; to locals, it additionally maintains the county’s best tourism draw and vital pure habitats.

However a single storm can wipe away a lot of that work, and Hurricane Idalia did. It was in some ways the proper storm to trigger large erosion on the coast, stated Ping Wang, a professor within the College of South Florida’s College of Geosciences. Storm surge allowed waves to succeed in farther onto land, pounding away not solely on the already depleted seashores but in addition at dune fields that took a long time to develop.

As Idalia approached, on Aug. 28, Wang and two of his graduate college students visited a number of Pinellas seashores, the place he took images. On Aug. 31, with the waves nonetheless uneven from the just-departed storm, they returned to the identical spots, and Wang repeated the method.

The placing before-and-after images present the toll Idalia took, even with a glancing blow: After finding out erosion on the west-central Florida coast for twenty years, Wang stated the erosion was essentially the most dramatic he’d ever seen from a single storm on Pinellas’ seashores.

Cross-a-Grille Seashore

Wanting carefully at Wang’s before-and-after images from Cross-a-Grille (above), those that have visited will see a well-known landmark: the brilliant yellow roof of the Hurricane Seafood Restaurant. However the stretch of seaside in entrance of it has been rendered practically unrecognizable.

The once-healthy dune area is very price noting, Wang stated. Cross-a-Grille was closely eroded by Hurricane Elena in 1985, and it took years of safety and nourishment for the dune to develop.

“This storm took out 30 years’ price of dune growth,” he stated.

The Cross-a-Grille dune area was hit so arduous partially as a result of there wasn’t a lot seaside left to guard it, Wang stated. Like many different Pinellas seashores, it’s due for renourishment — new sand hasn’t been added there in a decade.

That course of was set to start this fall however has been postponed: It’s considered one of three renourishment undertaking areas on maintain in Pinellas because the Military Corps of Engineers says it wants all house owners of beachfront property within the undertaking areas to offer everlasting public entry to a part of their land. The Lengthy Key undertaking, which incorporates Cross-a-Grille and Upham seashores, has a handful of holdouts, whereas the bigger Sand Key undertaking to the north nonetheless wants greater than 200 house owners to vow public entry.

Sundown Seashore

Like Cross-a-Grille, Sundown Seashore, in Treasure Island, was already closely eroded earlier than Idalia, Wang stated. The pre-storm picture exhibits about 20-30 toes of sand, he estimated; a renourishment would take it to about 150 toes.

The buckled swimming-pool deck seen within the post-storm picture was among the many most important structural harm Wang noticed, he stated. Out of view, the storm had pushed sand into close by driveways and Gulf Boulevard.

However considered one of Idalia’s silver linings can be seen right here: The storm moved quick, battering the Pinellas coast for about 10 hours, Wang stated. Had it been slower or stalled off the coast, the harm to beachfront property may have been rather more widespread.

“If the storm lasted a number of extra hours, that form of beige-looking constructing would tackle some critical issues,” he stated. “We’re actually strolling a advantageous line. We aren’t giving ourselves a lot of a buffer.”

Madeira Seashore

Madeira Seashore skilled erosion just like Sundown, Wang stated, however it additionally exhibits how a wider seaside can present safety — no structural harm right here. A cordoned-off turtle nest is seen within the pre-storm picture, a reminder that Pinellas’ seashores are an important residence for endangered species. The nest was washed away throughout the storm.

Indian Rocks Seashore

Like at Cross-a-Grille, Idalia eroded dunes on this part of Indian Rocks Seashore. In contrast to the opposite seaside, this dune area was far youthful: It grew after the final spherical of main erosion right here, from Tropical Storm Debby in 2012.

“We have now been in a position to preserve a comparatively broad, wholesome seaside over there,” Wang stated. “In order that dune we’re is mainly 12 years of dune development.”

Wang selected this location for one more purpose, he stated. The ocean partitions alongside Pinellas seashores don’t go in a straight line — they jut out towards the ocean and are available again landward primarily based on the property they’re meant to guard. The constructing seen right here comes nearer to the water than the others round it, Wang stated; with the seaside in entrance of it now completely eroded, it might be hit tougher by a future storm.

“It’s a bit late for us, as a result of we’re closely developed,” he stated. “If we do extra growth, setting it again a bit extra helps.”

Belleair Seashore

This space of Belleair Seashore is “a really aggressive erosion sizzling spot,” Wang stated. Most erosion both pushes sand landward or pulls it seaward, and when it’s the latter, the seaside can generally partially get better as sand washes again in. Right here, although, the sand tends to maneuver north and south.

Renourishment, which takes place right here on a five-year cycle, extends the seaside about 200 toes. As a result of it’s so vulnerable to erosion, it’s commonplace to see all that sand gone by the point the following renourishment comes round. That’s the place Belleair was earlier than the storm: Renourishment is scheduled for subsequent yr however possible received’t happen amid the standoff between Pinellas County and the Corps over the Corps’ insurance policies.

Now, Wang stated, going to Belleair Seashore is like stepping right into a time machine: This “is what it appeared like within the late ‘80s or early ‘90s, earlier than the west-central coast of Florida began this large-scale nourishment.”

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