Sand removal, restoration begins on Sunset Beach after Hurricane Helene

Sand removal underway

Kailey Tracy reports

TREASURE ISLAND, Fla. - Crews started sand removal and restoration efforts in Sunset Beach on Thursday.

William Coughlin, the CEO of Gator Dredging, said he and his crews hope to have West Gulf Boulevard, a mile stretch in Sunset, clear by the end of the day Friday. He said they’re dealing with about 30,000 cubic yards of sand on West Gulf Boulevard and the side streets in Sunset Beach.

"We were very surprised, as everybody else was, with the level of storm surge and how violent it must have been to move this quantity of sand into this community," Coughlin said.

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Crews are moving the sand into what was a beach access parking lot on the south end of Sunset just a week ago. That’s where they filter out debris and make two piles, one for clean sand and one for debris. They’ll put the clean sand back on the beach as dunes.

"Sunset Beach was a priority identified by the county because of emergency access and utility trucks being able to get power back on and sewer and water," he said.

Coughlin said they’re used to beach renourishment projects, but this one is a little different.

"We typically are pumping sand from the water and putting it onshore, creating beaches. We have built dunes in the past, actually for Pinellas County. After last year, we built 17 miles of dunes for them, so, we understand the process. This is a little different for us cleaning streets, but it is the same equipment that we would be typically using in our land-based equipment for the beach construction site as we normally pump it up," Coughlin said.

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Stephanie Mitchell, a business owner in Sunset Beach, said the crews removing sand Thursday was a welcome sight.

"I’m really happy, obviously, to see them," she said.

Mitchell said she hasn’t been able to fully assess her damage yet, though.

"It’s a little bit frustrating right now. I have a contractor ready to go to be able to get sand off my property," she said. "The city won’t let me bring my Bobcat through, in order to start clearing it, so I can at least have parking."

It’s because no vehicles, including contractors, are allowed onto Sunset right now, according to Jason Beisel, a spokesperson for Treasure Island.

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"It's hard to get one vehicle down, and then you're backing up and moving around, and you can get stuck if you back into the sand," Beisel said. "So, it’s just not feasible to allow traffic in here right now. We understand the frustration. We understand these people are weary. We understand that they're upset, but we are working as fast as we can to get this cleared."

"We're trying to work as rapidly as possible," Coughlin said. "The key is to get it open, because when we can get this street two lanes open, they may be able to let them drive in if they have a place to park, which is the second phase of the work, but at least they can probably be driven in and be dropped off rather than, right now, residents from our position, they have to walk almost a mile to get out here."

"Residents have not had access to their homes by vehicle, and it's been very difficult for them to get contractors down there to help them," Kelli Hammer Levy, the director of Pinellas County’s Public Works, said about Sunset Beach.

Beisel said residents and business owners are allowed to shovel a path on their property if they’re not using a vehicle to do so.

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"What we're having an issue is some of these businesses and some of these residents have started pushing the sand out into the street, into areas that the city and our contractors have already cleared. And so, if that continues to happen, that will just slow the process because then we have to come back through and clear that again," Beisel said.

After crews clear West Gulf Boulevard, they’ll start on the side streets in Sunset Beach, Coughlin said. The entire process should take about two weeks. He said they hope to have another crew in Pass-a-Grille clearing sand by this weekend.

County crews and the Florida Department of Transportation have collected sand from across Pinellas County over the past few days, Hammer Levy said. She said the National Guard is helping them consolidate it and bring the sand to locations where they can filter out the debris and then return the clean sand to the beach.

"We're working very diligently to move the sand out. We've been working with the DEP on a local sand management strategy. We have the National Guard coming in to help us move sand to two locations where we can then get it back into the beach system, but it is a very heavy lift to do this," Hammer Levy said.

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"This is an unprecedented what we're calling wash over event. We have sand all over areas where we actually had no sand in the first place. Sunset Beach was completely eroded back, and the dunes were already gone before Helene hit, and yet they are buried under feet of sand right now," Hammer Levy said.

She said if sand is on your private property, you can put it back on the beach above the mean high water line only if it’s clean, meaning no debris, nails, rocks, etc. are in it.

Hammer Levy said they’re working on identifying two locations on the beaches where, if you don’t have access to the beach, you can have a designated contractor to bring sand to, both clean and dirty. They’ll announce those locations soon, she said.

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