Florida digs out of mountains of sand swept in by back-to-back hurricanes
Published Oct. 18, 2024, 3:35 a.m. ET
When a hurricane sets its sights on Florida, storm-weary residents may think of catastrophic wind, hammering rain and dangerous storm surge. Mounds of sand swallowing their homes? Not so much.
That’s the reality for some after Hurricanes Helene and Milton clobbered Florida’s Gulf Coast with back-to-back hits in less than two weeks. Storm surge as high as 10 feet swept mountains of sand into communities — in some areas, 5 feet tall or higher.
The morning after Hurricane Milton crashed ashore, the roads of Bradenton Beach, about an hour’s drive south of Tampa, were lined with sandbanks a couple of feet (less than a meter) high, surrounding some bungalows. The views of the Old Florida beach town were not unlike those after a blustery Midwestern blizzard.
“The best way to describe it, it’s like getting 4 to 6 feet (1.2 to 1.8 meters) of snow up north,” said Jeremi Roberts, a member of the State Emergency Response Team surveying the damage that day