SURFSIDE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – While the Grand Strand was far from a direct hit from Tropical Storm Irma, some of the beaches still experienced damage.
At a Surfside Beach Town Council meeting on Tuesday, Administrator Micki Fellner said the Army Corps of Engineers determined over fifty-seven percent of the town’s sand was lost during the storm.
“They did some additional inspections (Sept. 20) and should have an official number to us sometime soon,” she said about the Army Corps of Engineers.
This major loss comes less than a month after the beaches were renourished as part of a multi-million dollar project across the Grand Strand. The project cost was shared between federal and local funding and Surfside Beach paid around $672,000 for the work.
“Unfortunately, there is no possibility of additional renourishment this year,” said Fellner. “The first possible opportunity to receive additional sand would be with the Reach 2 Project and that’s the Myrtle Beach renourishment.”
The Myrtle Beach project will likely happen in 2018.
In 2016, News13 spoke with Coastal Oceanographer, Paul Gayes, and asked if the cost is worth it when the sand keeps getting washed away.
“There may be places where we should be seriously thinking: Should we be forcing ourselves to defend these areas knowing how vulnerable they are and knowing how expensive it is now and is going to be?” said Gayes.
Fellner said the Town of Surfside Beach would determine the cost to fix the damage done to the completed renourishment work when the project is bid out.
