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Hurricane Irma Report


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Hi Guys!

I've been back home in Indian Harbour since Tuesday night.  We still don't have electricity, but we do have a generator, which runs the air conditioning enough to keep it almost tolerable in here.  Florida LP says everyone on the east coast will be back online by Sunday.  We'll keep our fingers crossed, because it is HOT here.

So in case anyone is curious, I have been hunting for the past 2 days (duh).  Four different beaches near Melbourne, and pretty much all the same conditions.  First, the hurricane DID take some of that "renourishment" sand away.  I'm pretty sure the sand was up to and level with the end of this boardwalk before Irma. (photo 1)

No cuts to speak of, unless you count the cuts into the dune line. Just below these cuts were where I found crusty old coins. (photo 2 and 3)

 With the extra sand gone, it's just a gentle slope from the dune line all the way to the water now. Very few rocks showing at low tide. (photo 4)

Before, there was the dune line, then a "hump" of added sand, then a fairly steep-ish grade down to the water line. Lots of the coquina rocks were showing at low tide. (photo 5, taken about 2 months ago)

I'm not finding much except very corroded clad coins, which seem to have been buried for a very long time.  The oldest was a 1958 nickel.  You would think with a couple of feet of sand gone, there would be lots of targets.  Nope.  It's like Irma came in, scraped some sand off the top, threw the rest in a blender, then dumped it all back on the beach and smoothed it down nice and flat.  The only good thing I've noticed is that most of the aluminum trash seems to be gone.  I was using the Infinium all the way up to the (new) foot of the dunes yesterday.  I'm thinking that any gold or silver was churned up and sank even lower when the waves were taking the sand away.  Those cruddy tent stakes, which I don't dig, were buried DEEP in what I think used to the be towel line.

Sadly, I saw quite a few turtle eggs which had been exposed, then eaten by the feathered rats. :sad:

I'm going to try to go to a good touristy beach, maybe Cocoa, Sunday.  I'll let y'all know if I find anything, if you're interested.

Ammie

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I went out again this morning.  HUGE waves, compliments of Jose.  It may be wishful thinking on my part, BUT it kinda looks like those huge waves MIGHT be starting to cut into some of that sand.  There are definitely scallops now, where there were none yesterday.  

I didn't find much, except more crusty coins from the eroded dunes.  No rhyme or reason to where any targets were located.  I found a corroded dime about 2 inches down.  About 2 swings from that I found a bottle cap buried 6 inches deep.

There might be some good stuff in the water.  It will have to settle down quite a bit before I find out.  7 foot waves and a nasty rip current?  No thanks!

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/15/2017 at 4:06 PM, MontAmmie said:

Hi Guys!

I've been back home in Indian Harbour since Tuesday night... <snip>  

Howdy Y'all,

As I no longer live on the beach we weren't under mandatory evacuation like MontAmmie was.. Due to the size of Irma and the sheer volume of folks already on the evacuation trails, we made the call to ride her out right where we already were in Port St. John..

Couple things of/to note: First off, if I can get out of a hurricane's way, I will.. I just so happen to evacuate late if necessary.. This call isn't suitable for many (families with young children, most elderly folks, those with special needs etc.,) but if ya can do it you'll avoid the Interstate bumper-to-bumper nightmare/madness, long waits for fuel (assuming there is fuel to be had,) finding a place to stay if you haven't pre-booked as a couple examples..

Two: Excluding Irma, I've found so far without exception since the early 1980s of the hurricanes I should have evacuated for from this location or the beach my best choice would have been heading south, the direction tens-of-thousands just came from.. I know, sounds counterintuitive -- but that's a benefit of living halfway down the peninsula vs at the bottom and needing to make an evacuation decision for a hurricane coming in from the E or ESE that's still three days out and whos turn point isn't already fairly locked in.. If you don't know you gotta go is pretty much gospel down Miami way..

A huge factor with Irma though was understanding there would be no escaping her to the south.. Everyone is going to get hit; the only question is to what degree..?

Which brings us to the other thing: Deceiding to ride out a hurricane is not a decision to be made on the spur-of-the-moment.. If you aren't already prepped up, fourty-eight hours away from being within its sphere of influence is not the time to begin all aspects of preparation.. What it is is time to get in your vehicle and get out of Dodge.. We were prepped, yet had it not been for a decent generator, plenty of fuel and a brand new still-in-the-box thirteen-year-old window-rattler a/c unit that somehow managed to keep the entire house at 82-83 degrees the whole time we were without FPL power, it would have made for a mighty uncomfortable to probably unbearable time indoors.. Plenty of bottled water and a well-stocked pantry would see us through, but come day four the freezer would have been good for a neighborhood buffet.. Riding out a hurricane is not something to be taken lightly; all you need to do is take a look at the Keys, Puerto Rico and other islands to understand why not..

Anyhow, unlike Sherry I was unable to get to the beach until last week, and didn't post any sort of report until yesterday (over on Bill's site..) Mine's much shorter, yet is in nearly total alignment with hers.. I'll drop a quick copy-n-paste beneath..

Swamp

---begin paste:

Ok -- a quick word about the local beach conditions following Irma:

Unlike Matthew, Irma did do a scrub job to Cape Canaveral / Cocoa Beach.. I'd guesstimate she removed a good fifty linear feet of replenished sand to approx four feet deep nearest the water sloping upward to sand replenishment level overwash nearest the sea oats / mini-dunes..

What I wasn't expecting though whas just how bad the detecting would be do to the scrubbing.. During two three-hour sessions this past Wednesday and Friday I recovered well under two dollars in change, four bottle caps, four pull tabs and one fake Hot Wheels.. If it wasn't for a small 925 silver ring found Wednesday way up high at the edge of the sea oats the trips would have been a total waste of time..

On Friday the beach was virtually abandoned -- to the point I was actually able to grid off the prime towel lines at Sheppard Park and detect well over 100 perpendicular feet from dune toe to water's edge, and within that area I recovered 4 dimes and nine pennies recent drops and two nickles + one quarter deeply buried.. That was it..!

This tells me whatever was there is now in the water.. So I guess I've finally run out of excuses for failing to replace my busted good water scoop and better do so pronto, cos if there's any stuff to be had that's where it now is..

Swamp

== [ Reply to Homefire in re items being tossed up high vs pulled to sea.. ]

Welll, I did find that ring up high, but I think it was a sit-n-slide as opposed to a wash-up..

You'd need to see how things look these days to try to figure it out..

First thing is there's no cut, it's all slope.. I think part of this was caused due to the leading edge of the storm pushing water onshore from the SE rather than from the more typical NE, followed by the trailing side blowing seaward toward the ENE..
The other part of why I think stuff got washed out rather than tossed up is because the dunes only breached at the very lowest points, and then just barely.. Because the dunes there are nearly non-existant anyhow, when they replenished they did a kind of dune build-up also.. There are spots where the backside of the dunes are lower than the ocean side of some condo's property.. Weird..!

Point being is while there is a lot of wind-blown paper, plastic etc. entangled in the oats et al, by the time you've gotten that far back from the shore line there really isn't much if any ocean and/or beach heavies that wern't already there.. Limited-to-no water force in play..

Things could be totally different in S. Cocoa Beach, but as of now I haven't been south of 520 much less yet to the Treasure Coast..

Swamp

--end paste.
 

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21 hours ago, Swampstomper Al said:

On Friday the beach was virtually abandoned -- to the point I was actually able to grid off the prime towel lines at Sheppard Park and detect well over 100 perpendicular feet from dune toe to water's edge, and within that area I recovered 4 dimes and nine pennies recent drops and two nickles + one quarter deeply buried.. That was it..!

This tells me whatever was there is now in the water.. So I guess I've finally run out of excuses for failing to replace my busted good water scoop and better do so pronto, cos if there's any stuff to be had that's where it now is..

 

Swamp, you did better than I did at Peppered Shark last week.  I got 12 cents and one corroded fake earring. :laugh:

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2 hours ago, MontAmmie said:

Swamp, you did better than I did at Peppered Shark last week.  I got 12 cents and one corroded fake earring. :laugh:

Last week's beach detecting was a combination reminder and first-hand experience eye-opener for me..

The absence of virtually anything man-made reminded me just exactly how short a period of time the beaches in Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach have been in use as local hangs or tourist destinations when compared against other locations along the Atlantic Seaboard..

Swamp

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