Debby sent us a message: protect dunes

In October, 2023, I wrote a column in the Gondolier titled, “How our dunes defend us.”

Venice escaped Hurricane Ian’s onslaught with little storm surge damage compared to the 13-foot storm surge that destroyed most of Ft. Myers Beach on another barrier island like ours.

On Tuesday, I toured the beaches on Venice island to find out what impact the 2- to 4-foot storm surge had on our beaches. Tropical Storm Debby’s winds were 60 mph and out of the southwest almost in direct contrast to Hurricane Ian’s winds of 110 mph out of the northeast.

After riding past Maxine Barritt Park on my bicycle, I noticed that the Harbor Drive entrance into Caspersen Beach was closed to vehicular traffic. I walked in and quickly discovered why.

A 30-yard swath of the road lost one of its lanes to the storm surge. The beach and dune had disappeared, and the tide was lapping against the remaining lane.

Two hundred yards away, parking spaces with a newly constructed fence had disappeared into the surf. The asphalt was gone, as was the fence.

If Ian had passed to the west of us as Debby did, our fate may have been much like Ft Myers Beach. Our elevations are essentially the same.

The dunes along Venice beaches have taken thousands of years to evolve their elaborate defense mechanisms. Intellectually, we are aware of their importance in sustaining the land behind them but the economic well-being of our community is in conflict with that need.

We spend tens of millions of dollars every few years to replenish our beaches to ensure that they are economic drivers we expect them to be. Our haste to gain access to those beaches, of course, is across the dunes behind them. People want beaches, not dunes.

The very places inundated at Caspersen Beach were places where informal foot paths in our haste to get to the beach destroyed the vegetation that held the dunes in place.

Can humans balance their desire to be on the beach with the need to ensure the survival of the land behind that beach?