The next beach renourishment slated for 2026 will cost about $20 million, putting about 1.5 million cubic yards of sand on the beach.
In October, the city adopted a memorandum of understanding with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to receive a $4 million appropriation for the state’s share of the planned nourishment. The federal government is paying $12 million, with the state picking up $4 million and Tybee picking up the remaining amount of the bill.
“We’re actively engaged with the Corps planning 2026 renourishment today,” said Alan Robertson, with AWR Strategic Consulting. “We’ve paid the money, we’re going to look at plans. They can’t just accelerate it, though.”
When Hurricane Helene swept through in September 2024, it was the the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Maria in 2017 and the deadliest to strike mainland U.S. since Katrina in 2005, causing record flooding, storm surges and power outages in six states, including Georgia. Robertson said, since Helene was so devastating, the Corps could come in and evaluate the beach, and determine if it had incurred enough damage to warrant an early renourishment. Had it lost about 500,000 cubic yards of sand, or, since they dumped 1.3 million cubic yards in 2020, half the beach.
Tybee didn’t lose that, not even close. Even if they had, Robertson said the Corps physically wouldn’t be able to do it before 2026 because of all the planning and bureaucracy that goes into the process.
In five years, Robertson estimates that they’ve lost about 30% of the beach through natural erosion or storms, which is 390,000 cubic yards. Not half the beach, and not quite as bad as before the last beach renourishment, which took place after two hurricanes, Matthew and Irma.
“I try to remind people that I have pictures from early 2019, and they started in November 2019,” Robertson said. “I have pictures of March and April. There was no beach here at high tide. I mean, people forget.”
Still, even now, there are some places on the beach where there is no beach, or very little beach during the high tide. For example the seaward end of the Second Street crossover, the wooden structure coming right onto the beach, has been taken off, because the water had just gotten too high. Some parts on the north end of the beach are just gone. There are other places, though, where the beach is accreting, or growing, Robertson said.
