Posted on February 12, 2025
MEXICO BEACH, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) – The Florida Panhandle took the brunt of Category 5 Hurricane Michael in 2018, including one Bay County town and its beautiful white-sand shores.
“Mexico Beach, of course, was greatly impacted. It decimated the whole, entire destination, and part of that was the erosion of our shoreline here,” said Kimberly Shoaf, President of the Mexico Beach Community Development Council.
Mexico Beach’s beach and shoreline are an integral part of the tourism industry that fuels the city, so officials looked for ways to secure funding in order to rebuild.
The city was able to secure two state grants, one from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity and another from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The combined total of both grants covers the entirety of the $27 million project.
“We’re bringing sand from a borrowed sand source that we have identified out in the Gulf, and we’re pumping this sand onto the beach in Mexico Beach,” Shoaf said. “Then we start constructing a full dune for the full length of Mexico Beach. Also, we’ll be lengthening the shoreline as well.”
The enhanced shoreline will serve as both a protective barrier for structures against future storms and a secure, stable habitat for nesting shorebirds and sea turtles. Additionally, native vegetation will be restored to its natural environment.
“We’ll be planting those into the dune lines to harden the newly shaped dune and make it to where it continues to thrive and is sustainable for many years to come,” said Shoaf.
Officials say that the project will encompass up to 1,000 feet of shoreline per day and that the rest of the beach will remain open during that time.
“Mexico Beach is continuing to overcome what we had to go through. To have a coastline that will be sustainable for years to come is just something that we’re very fortunate and proud to be a part of,” Shoaf said.
The city says they aim to have the project completed by May 1.
For more information on Mexico Beach’s shoreline restoration project, visit here.
