POMPANO BEACH, Fla. – Some Pompano Beach residents woke up on Thursday morning to a yacht on their beach.
Nathan Coffman visits the beach regularly and felt the “big” waves on Wednesday. He returned on Thursday to find the storm had changed the area overnight.
“The beach was flat down there and now it’s a straight slope,” Coffman said. “There’s a lot of sand that has gone out.”
Hurricane Nicole made landfall just south of Vero Beach at 3 a.m., and the storm surge it caused managed to cause erosion in Broward County
Jacob Rice is Broward County’s beach program manager. He said the southern part of the county, including Dania Beach, Hollywood, and Fort Lauderdale saw a greater impact on the shoreline.
“We have seen the beaches south of Port Everglades have had some erosion impact from preliminary assessment,” Rice said.
The county was focused on replenishing areas with the most damage and bolstering natural beach defenses like sand dunes.
They will be working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in the coming days.
“The goal is to protect the shoreline, protect the buildings the infrastructure that’s already there, in a natural way,” Rice said.