DANIA BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - As the remnants of Subtropical Storm Alberto move past Florida’s Panhandle, its rain has caused erosion on Dania Beach.
Large amounts of sand was washed away on Dania Beach over the Memorial Day weekend due to what once was Subtropical Storm Alberto. 7News was on the shore where a beach entrance was closed Tuesday due to the structure’s support weakening.
Photos from Sunday morning showed some lifeguard towers beginning to fall into the water. Lifeguards were seen shoveling out some of the sand to level the tower.
Dania Beach Ocean Rescue Chief Michael Huck said the erosion is nothing new.
“It’s happened quite a lot, so we’re kind of used to it now,” said Huck. “Whether it be this tower or the other towers, some of the areas of the beach get hit differently. This time, it was this section here.”
Although these kinds of situations have become the norm, Huck said it’s still an issue.
“It goes in cycles. Sometimes you’ll lose a lot of sand, sometimes a lot of sand will be coming back up,” he said, “but we just haven’t seen the sand coming back up.”
Dawn Sommo, who lives in the area, said she’s noticed the lack of sand on the beach due to the erosion over the past few years.
“I would say we’ve lost a good 30 feet of beach, so it’s pretty serious at this point,” she said.
Visitor Roshana McCarthur was surprised at the size of the beach. “It just looks so small, and we was wondering, what happened to the rest of the beach,” McCarthur said.
Beachgoers said they hope something can be done to preserve the beach. “It’s probably nature telling us the beach needs to go further in,” said Huck. “You can’t fight nature.”
Huck said that they will try to get an excavator to help move the tower. If that fails, officials will then use a crane to pull out the tower and move it to another spot on the beach.
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