FORT LAUDERDALE – Friends Pat Osterlo and Donna Bisceglie were enjoying the day on Fort Lauderdale beach on Friday, but noticed Hurricane Helene took a bite out of it.
They saw erosion.
“I guess that storm really took it out,” Osterlo said. “It’s got to be at least 4 feet, maybe 3.
That beach erosion was brought on by storm bands.
“That wave action from yesterday came up and just ate away at the sand profile,” Stephanie Roche, who is Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program manager, said. “So we lost a little bit of beach here.”
She surveyed the beach Friday and found mild erosion.
“I would estimate this to be maybe 18 inches, just under 2 feet. So nothing too major,” she said, referring to a section of the beach.
Roche believes just as Mother Nature took away sand, she’ll bring it back too.
“What we’re hoping for is that in the next couple of weeks, that sand that migrated offshore with the heavy waves will come back onshore and just naturally restore the beach back to its normal profile in a month,” Roche said.