Indian Rocks Beach, Fla. (AP) — A white sandy beach along Florida’s Gulf Coast belt was hit by three hurricanes last year. Million-dollar efforts to repair the coastline That is the local economic engine.
The crew handles dr, trucks and pipelines along 35 miles (56 km) beaches in Pinellas County, including cities such as Clearwater Beach, Indian Rock Beach, Beria Beach and Redington Beach. This is a major tourist destination still recovering from Hurricane Helen, Milton and Debbie.
Helen was It’s the most destructive For the beach town, despite landing north. Twelve people have died in Pinellas County due to a strong storm surge that reached 8 feet (2.4 meters) height in several locations.
Over the past few years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers played a major role in restoring beaches, but this time it wasn’t. The Corps hopes that private property owners will register for permanent easements that will allow government access to permanent easements. This is a change that matches the harsh resistance.
So Pinellas County is doing the beach repair itself, spending more than $125 million in tourism tax revenue to cover the costs. The county also has an easement program, but some property owners won’t sign up, so there’s a gap in the beach revival that could potentially damage future storms.
“We can’t do everything we can,” said Barry Burton, Pinellas County administrator. “Our desire is to put sand on as many beaches as possible.”
This project will require 2.5 million cubic yards (1.9 million cubic meters) of sand being dried and pumped from offshore. Where the property owner refuses to sign the easement, new sand is positioned towards the bay side of the beach, where the public is. The beach is expanded up to 100 feet (30 meters).
For that part, Army He said it is not justified to spend millions of U.S. taxpayers on beach nutritional money without a permanent easement to grant access.
“The Corps cannot build projects in ‘gaps’ due to the lack of easements,” the agency said in a statement. “A council-approved, designed projects cannot provide a level of protection when built with gaps.”
These gaps mean that there could be another beach with no facilities with sand dunes and elongated beaches. That’s where the storm surge of future hurricanes continues.
In the past, the Army paid about 65% of the beach recovery costs. Now, Pinellas County is making bills on the bills alone, with only money allocated for the new Tampa Bay Rays Baseball Stadium and associated developments.
The team’s current stadium, Tropicana Field, suffered a major loss at Hurricane Milton last October, but has been repaired in time for next season. The Rays will be sold to a new group of investors this year, with the teams going to play in Limbo.
The county cannot afford such beach work again, said Kelly Hammer Levy, director of public works.
“This is the last and only time,” she said. So it’s really important that there’s federal support in the future. ”
