PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The Weather Authority is tracking a nor'easter expected to push heavy rain and gusty winds into Northeastern Florida and Southeastern Georgia over the weekend. As the forecast becomes more clear, residents are now concerned that areas along Florida's east coast may also experience beach erosion.
Many people who live along the beach have already experienced erosion as Hurricane Irma brought tropical storm force winds and induced storm surge to east coast shores earlier this month.
"Irma did a fair amount of damage to the beaches," Dr. Jeremy Stalker, a Jacksonville University associate marine science professor, said.
It now appears that this weekend's storm will make matters even worse.
"(After Irma) in some places, it was starting to erode into to the dunes systems, that leaving the beach even more vulnerable to more erosion from the water that gets pushed in front of these nor'easters," Stalker said.
Ivan Juric bought his South Ponte Vedra beachfront home back in 1993. After Hurricane Matthew struck last year, he now spends most his time figuring out how he'll protect his property from the next storm.
"So after Matthew, we lost a lot more than 4 feet," Juric said. "We eroded to 6 feet under our foundation and a lot of houses were destroyed,"
In May, Juric and his neighbors received their notice to build a wall between their homes and the beach in hopes of preventing beach erosion when storms roll through, however, a portion of that wall was damaged after Hurricane Irma made landfall.
As the nor'easter approaches, Juric continues to repair the damage left by Irma but is also fortifying the wall in hopes of it withstanding another strong storm.
According to Stalker, beach erosion is still likely to occur despite any precautions that may be taken due in part to the sand displacement that has already occurred this year.