By the time Hurricane Irma passed across Hilton Head Island it was downgraded to a tropical storm and behaved much like a typical winter nor'easter.
The winds were blustery and persistent and they gusted above 60 mph during the heaviest rain bands but none of this caused any real damage. Our problems came from the storm surge created by the massive size of Irma as she drifted north over the west coast of Florida and pushed a 4 foot wall of water up the east coast from Jacksonville to Charleston. This happend exactly as we were having an 8 foot king tide. The tidal gauge at Fort Pulaski recorded Irma's high water mark to be 12.24 feet which was just shy of Hurricane Matthew's record of 12.50 feet.
Our beaches took the same hit as they did during Hurricane Matthew. It looks like the dune line and beaches coming from the ocean gate of Sea Pines to The Sea Pines Resort Beach Club held up reasonably well. The ocean washed over the beachside vegetation and came up to the dune lines before retreating. Moving further south, from the The Sea Pines Resort Beach Club towards Seaside Sparrow, it's a different story. It appears the dune line, in a number of areas, gave everything it had to the sea to protect the oceanfront homes.
To our great fortune the beach contractor, Marinex Construction, who was hired to do the repair work caused by Hurricane Matthew, is already on the beach and cleaning up Irma's storm debris. Their crews are back to working a 24/7 schedule of dredging and pumping over 200,000 cubic yards of sand onto the beach from Seaside Sparrow until they reach East Beach Lagoon Road. The beaches they're rebuilding should look like the work they did at Tower Beach Club. If you've had the pleasure of being there to catch a sunset, then you know what a wonderful job they did in creating a wide stretch of beach in that area.
Over the next couple of months, new sand will be pumped and sculpted onto our beaches and you'll start to notice new vegetation springing back to life along the dune areas. While this happens, you'll find the beaches of Sea Pines Plantation to be just as beautiful and pleasurable to walk, bike or relax on as ever before. Don't hesitate to come and have fun!
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