What began as a peaceful afternoon turned into chaos when a dredge pipe unexpectedly burst near the shoreline, sending water shooting into the air and beachgoers scrambling for safety.
Watch as Fort Myers Beach community correspondent Anvar Ruziev visits the site where the pipe burst:
Crews working to repair leak in dredge pipe on Fort Myers Beach
Mike Case, who was enjoying the day with his family, captured video of water bubbling up from the sand.
“The water just started bubbling up and it comes up like a foot out of the ground,” Case said. The pipe is part of the Fort Myers Beach renourishment project, which pumps sand from offshore dredges onto the beach. Case said he didn’t hear any explosion or warning—just commotion from others nearby.
“It was sort of chaos for a while because we didn’t know what it was,” Case said. “I said, ‘Hey, you gotta move your stuff, this water is coming your way.”…