Posted on October 9, 2024
Turbulent waves fueled by Hurricane Milton may cause some erosion to Palm Beach’s shoreline, but Public Works Director Paul Brazil says the island’s beloved beaches should recover in a few weeks time.
The town will be monitoring shorelines through the end of week, utilizing pre-storm season survey as means to measure the storm’s potential impact, Brazil said in an email to the Daily News.
This comes after a few days of increased wave activity caused by the outer bands of Hurricane Helene as it made its way north to Florida’s Big Bend.
Hurricane Milton is currently a Category 5 hurricane, and is expected to make landfall on Florida’s gulf coast around Wednesday evening.
The major hurricane comes months before the start of two major beach nourishment projects.
On Palm Beach’s South End, the town is expected to begin the Phipps Ocean Park Beach Nourishment Project, which will replenish the dunes in the stretch of shoreline from Phipps Ocean Park south to La Bonne Vie Condominiums.
Brazil said the hurricane should not impact the project’s timeline.
On Palm Beach’s North End, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ will dredge the Palm Beach inlet and place the excess and on the beach just south of the inlet’s southern jetty and around the stretch of water that spans from Caribbean Road to Onondaga Avenue.
The Midtown Shore Protection Project, which will see the Army Corps replenishing sand lost to erosion during the 2022 hurricane season, also is scheduled for 2025, though town officials have yet to announce a start date.
