Residents and tourists alike flocked to the beautiful, big, wide sandy beaches of St. Pete Beach this week to enjoy the Fourth of July holiday. It was wonderful to see so many people swimming and playing on a beach that only a few days before had been pounded by the surging waves of Tropical Storm Debby.
It's a joyful ritual of mine to photograph Upham Beach on the Fourth of July each year. Aside from the obvious happiness of seeing so many people on our beach, it's also a great way to demonstrate the effectiveness of Pinellas County's Upham Beach Stabilization Project at preserving and protecting our beach against erosion.
In 2005, Pinellas County commenced the project by installing five temporary "T-Groin" erosion control structures on Upham Beach. These structures are made from durable geotextile material filled with sand, and are designed to hold sand on the beach that would otherwise drift southwards due to normal tidal forces and, of course, the strong erosional force of storms.
Only a few days earlier, Tropical Storm Debby was doing her best to wash away the sands of Upham Beach. Thankfully, the T-Groins keep a remarkable amount of sand on the beach given the intensity of the storm surge:
By comparison, this is what Upham Beach looks like without T-Groins several years after a beach renourishment:
The T-Groins also did a great job on the northernmost end of Upham Beach. Here's what T-1 looked like just before Debby hit:
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| Upham Beach Geotube T1 before Tropical Storm Debby |
Here is Debby in action:
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| Upham Beach Geotube T1 during Tropical Storm Debby - June 24, 2012 |
And here is North Upham Beach at T-1 on July 4, 2012, after Debby:
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| Upham T-Groin #1 after Tropical Storm Debby (July 4, 2012) |
While the super-tough geotextile material used to make the Upham Beach T-Groins is durable, it is not entirely impervious to the combined threats of storm surge and vandalism, so periodic inspections of the geotubes are necessary to insure they are properly maintained. On July 2, 2012, I tagged along with Pinellas County's Coastal Manager Andrew Squires and Thomas Pierro from Coastal Planning & Engineering, Inc. (Pinellas County's engineering contractor for the Project) during their inspection of the Upham Beach geotubes.
Overall, Pierro and Squires were both very pleased with the condition of the beach and the T-Groins. Pierro noted that the profile of the beach between the northernmost T-Groin (T1) and T2 showed that, given the severity of the storm surge created by Debby, a substantial amount of sand was remaining on the beach that otherwise would have been lost. He observed the same between T2 -T3 and T3-T4. He also observed that in the space between T2 - T3 and between T3 -T4 there was evidence that some sand was returning to the shoreline that had been washed away, a pattern of "restoration" that is being aided by the presence of the Geotubes.
It was clear to Pierro and Squires that while Debby's storm surge had caused a loss of sand on the beach, a substantially larger amount of sand would have been lost if the T-Groins had not been in place. Squires confirmed that Pinellas County officials are actively pursuing funding for a beach renourishment that would restore sand that was lost during the recent storm.
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| Thomas Pierro and Andrew Squires inspect damage to Upham Beach Geotube T1 (July 2, 2012) |
Unfortunately, Pierro and Squires also observed damage to the T-Groins, some of which was caused by the force of the storms and some of which was clearly caused by human malice. In several instances some seams had come loose due to the force of the storm surge. In other instances, the geotubes had sustained punctures and slashes that Pierro concluded could only have been caused by vandalism.
Here are some photos of the damage that they observed:
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| Tom Pierro and Andrew Squires inspect damage to Upham Beach Geotube T2 (July 2, 2012) |
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| Tom Pierro inspects vandalism damage to Upham Beach Geotube T4 (July 2, 2012) |
In addition to the efforts of Pinellas County officials to preserve Upham Beach, it was great to see that on June 30th, mere days after Tropical Storm Debby subsided, hundreds of volunteers came to St. Pete Beach as part of a joint effort between the city and the
Florida Aquarium for a
Sea Oats Planting. The volunteers planted 5000 sea oat plants that had been donated by Pinellas County. Once planted, the sea oats plants will help to establish dunes that will help mitigate the erosive effects of storm surge.
It's great to see public officials, non-profit organizations like the Florida Aquarium, and private citizens all coming together to protect our beautiful beach community!
