Tropical storm Debby brings high tides under St. Augustine Beach Pier

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — High tide and winds from Tropical Storm Debby sent water under the St. Augustine Beach Pier Monday morning. That is unusual because a beach renourishment project essentially built a wall of sand under the pier that left it mostly dry. Now, the storm brought heavy erosion.

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“I know the army core engineers did a really good job creating a beach restoration. I know that protected a lot of St. Augustine, and I know that they’re doing good work. It’s definitely sad to see the water get all the way back up, but I think the engineers are going do a really good job in the future and help keep us safe and protect us,” said Alex Wenzel, St. Augustine resident.

A few people watching the waves said it looked like at least 100 yards of sand were washed away.

“I think we knew the storms were going to take out a lot of the sand especially since a lot of it wasn’t settled in yet,” said Jeannine Litty, a St. Augustine resident.

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This beach nourishment project was federally funded at around $33 million. A few people living in St. Augustine said tropical storms like Debby are bound to happen, and this beach renourishment project prevented any real damage to the beach.

“I have seen 120 to 130 feet of sand go away in one night because of a storm, so this is not too bad, and we didn’t lose too much,” said Ron Joiner, St. Augustine resident.

Tropical Storm Debby and the high tide did bring water onto the beach hitting the sand dunes. Now, the water is barely hitting the tip of the pier. People along the beach and surfers said they hoped that would be the largest impact they would see from this storm.

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