I walked to the beach shortly after sunrise this morning to see how big the Irene driven waves were. Although they were not as big as I expected, they were by no means small. Several surfers were there without their surf boards watching the waves and planning when they would be back with surf board in hand.
It was obvious that the beach has suffered some serious erosion. Being that this area of beach has been renourished (if my memory serves me) 3 times in the 10 years that I have lived here, Irene washed millions of dollars of sand out to sea. Experts, however, say that wave action will eventually bring back some of the sand and deposit it on the beach again. That is a good thing.
What isn’t good, however, is another sight that I witnessed. Undoubtedly thousands if not more of turtle eggs were strewn along the beach. The strong waves washed out the turtle nests that were buried in the sand. It looked like the beach was littered with an uncountable number of ping pong balls.
It was obvious that the beach has suffered some serious erosion. Being that this area of beach has been renourished (if my memory serves me) 3 times in the 10 years that I have lived here, Irene washed millions of dollars of sand out to sea. Experts, however, say that wave action will eventually bring back some of the sand and deposit it on the beach again. That is a good thing.
What isn’t good, however, is another sight that I witnessed. Undoubtedly thousands if not more of turtle eggs were strewn along the beach. The strong waves washed out the turtle nests that were buried in the sand. It looked like the beach was littered with an uncountable number of ping pong balls.
Fortunately for us, Hurricane Irene missed us unlike Frances and Jean in 2004. My prayers are with those in North Carolina and elsewhere who are about to experience Irene's fury.
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