As Hurricane Erin churns hundreds of miles off of Florida’s east coast, the impacts from the storm can be felt along the northeast Florida shore, and seen on the beach.
In St. Johns County on Wednesday, sticks started to pile up from the tide, along with other debris.
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To preserve the beaches, the US Army Corps of Engineers oversees beach renourishment projects across the country, including here in Florida. Jason Harrah is a project manager for the Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville division. He says the projects, while beneficial, can be quite costly.
“I can tell you just in the last two years, in 2024 and so far in 2025, we spent about $137 million dollars of federal money restoring the beaches from Fernandina, in Duval County, St Johns, and all the way down in Flagler County just focusing on northeast Florida,” said Harah. “We’ve restored all those beaches from the impacts previously of Ian and Nicole and just normal erosion. So, we spend a significant amount of money, as Congressionally authorized, to restore our beaches for multiple reasons.”
Harah says he doesn’t expect too much damage to the beaches from Hurricane Erin. But with more hurricanes potentially on the way, and the high cost to renourish beaches, we asked if he thinks there will ever be an end to beach renourishment.
“It seems to be the most environmentally friendly, most cost-effective alternative to combat the impacts of these hurricanes and even Nor’easters,” said Harrah. “So in the immediate future, I don’t see an impact to it, or I don’t see an end to it, I should say.”
Harrah says they will have teams out on the beaches to survey the damage as needed when the storm impacts die down.
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