Flagler Beach-Recovering from Matthew

Friday – Saturday                                                                                            Most Recent Posts:
November 25-26, 2016                                                                            Thanksgiving at the Beach
Gamble Rogers State Recreation Area                                       My Favorite Ocean Front Spot – Gamble Rogers
Flagler Beach, Florida

 

 

It’s another beautiful sunrise over the Atlantic this morning and a few of us are out to enjoy it.

 

 

My regular pals are here.

 

 

 

And a new fisherwoman is catching bait.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning I decide to walk the 3.2 miles up the beach to the Farmer’s Market in the center of town. I talked about the market in my last post, the blue link above, so I’m not going to talk about the market this time but about what I saw of the hurricane damage on my walk.

Flagler Beach was hit hard by Hurricane Matthew in early October as these pictures from local and state news organizations show.

 

These are pictures of highway A1A that goes right by the park.  The picture on the left shows damage  just down from the Island Grille where we had Thanksgiving Dinner.

 

 

 

This is of another spot between the town and Gamble Rogers.

 

You can see the Flagler pier in this picture.  The damage went quite a long way down the road and it was closed for over a month.  Actually I think the county or state or whoever is responsible for these repairs in what I consider to be a very short period of time, deserves a huge amount of credit.

 

 

We noticed damage and repairs under way on our bike ride yesterday to and from the buffet.  But that was from the view from the street.

Today I walk so I can see the situation from the water side.   Flagler Beach is a lovely wide beach and beyond the state park it is lined on one side by the water and on the other by A1A and the nice mix of homes and businesses that face the road.  I can see them all as I walk along on the sloping sand.

 

 

I hope it is clear from this picture how much erosion was created by the sea.  Many of the stairs down to the water were washed completely out.  Those that remain are undermined in many cases.

 

 

 

An amazing amount of restoration work has already been done in the 7 weeks since the storm but there is still work going on.   This picture makes the house look like it is right on the edge of the dune but it really isn’t.  The highway is between the sand and the house but barely.  I’m not sure what they will do to save A1A after the next storm or two.  There just isn’t much land between the sand and the houses.  And of course with sea levels rising the situation is only becoming more severe.

 

 

This appears to be the current plan.   The road is now lined on the water side for several miles with giant boulders that we think are granite.

 

Still working on getting all the boulders in place.

 

Not sure why they aren’t using the local coquina which enabled the fort in St. Augustine to withstand canon balls, but perhaps it would be too difficult.   The pieces of it I find as I walk are a bit small for this purpose but they litter the beach and are individually beautiful.

 

 

 

All different shades, all beautiful.  I really wanted to bring this first one home.  Looks like a cave to me.

 

 

 

 

 

I was so happy to see that my favorite house on the walk to town wasn’t damaged.

 

 

I’d love to meet the owners of this house.  “Yo-Ho-Ho, A Pirate’s Life For Me”

 

The lack of steps isn’t stopping folks from accessing the beach.  Rock climbing any one?

 

As you could see from the newspaper photos, the road was seriously damaged and in this spot, they had to build what sort of looks like a bridge under the land.

 

The famous Flagler Beach Pier is closed for now.  It wasn’t destroyed but it was damaged and shortened.

 

 

As I near the pier, I take some redone steps up to the concrete boardwalk.  Perhaps they tired of replacing the wooden one.

 

The fishermen may be disappointed at the pier being closed but all around it in the water, the surfers were in the water.

 

 

Other folks were swimming and playing.  Flagler Beach isn’t fully recovered but it’s come a long way in a short time.   Well done I say!

 

 

 

Hope you aren’t getting sick of sunrises because on Saturday I had the joy of experiencing the most beautiful sunrise of any day in the two weeks we were here.  Yes I did see them all.  This one was fantatic.  Wish I could show all the pictures I took with the subtle nuances in the sky and water but here are a few.

First the dawn color which was really the show.  It occurs about 30 minutes before sunrise give or take.

 

 

 

 

 

The closer it gets to sunrise, the lighter the colors become and the more the clouds try to push them down to the horizon line.

 

Off to the north, the colors are pinks not oranges and the clouds lighter not dark.

 

Friends are out to share the sunrise with me. 

 

 

 

 

Here it comes, fighting its way through the clouds at the horizon that look like little mountains.

 

 

 

 

Shortly it becomes a big blaze in the sky, the clouds and the sky lighten up as I look down the long uninhabited beach.

 

 

David misses the show but comes out later for a walk.  We happen upon a group containing Terns this morning.  They always make me laugh.  Not sure what is so funny about them but they are to me.

 

 

 

 

We walk south today down past the water tower to Northern Peninsula State Park.  The beach south of Gamble Rogers has only a small section of condos around the water tower area before the next protected state park beach begins.  It’s really very nice.  You can walk for miles without overwhelming commercial development.

 

We spend another day on the ocean front.  Weather says the winds are going to be difficult for the end of our stay here.  So we’re enjoying the relative calm and the waves while we can.

 

What to do when it’s too windy to sit on the beach or to kayak?  That’s our challenge.  Coming up next.