Wind and tides cut away at Isle of Palms

'Inlet' islands take brunt as sea carries away sand

Grace Beahm
The Post and Courier

Waves crash against anti-erosion sandbags at Wild Dunes on Isle of Palms on Tuesday.

'Inlet' islands take brunt as sea carries away sand

ISLE OF PALMS — Waves smashed over the sandbags and into the pool at Seascape Condominiums. The ocean has ripped away half the 18th green at the Links course. Full-moon tides and high winds have played havoc at the Wild Dunes resort.

The tides on the east end of Isle of Palms have pushed into the dunes and onto walkways for about a two mile stretch. Erosion has been bad at the island's other end, from Breach Inlet to 3rd Avenue West, said Isle of Palms Mayor Mike Sottile on Tuesday. "It's the worst I've ever seen it, and I've been here on the island all of my life."

The Lowcountry has been caught in a wheelhouse of high and low pressure systems, whirling up stiff, steady winds of more than 20 mph, in the same direction as the tide runs. Lunar tides predicted to be unusually high came in a foot higher than expected.

"The winds have been blowing sustained out of the northeast for several days now. You put that on top of a really high, high tide and twice a day the beach is really getting pounded," said Bill Eiser, S.C. Ocean and Coastal Resources Management oceanographer.

Meteorologist Steve Taylor with the National Weather Service, Charleston, said the winds should drop and conditions improve from here on out.

The most vulnerable "inlet" islands, like Isle of Palms or Hunting Island in Beaufort County, have eroded severely. Other Lowcountry beaches are handling the pounding better.

Besides the Isle of Palms, Sullivan's Island has taken the worst beating. Breach Inlet has been battered, with surf washing under a few beachfront homes. The beach walkway at Station 30 nearby now has a 3-foot drop-off, said Fire Chief Anthony Stith. "We've lost a lot of sand dunes. But basically we're in pretty good shape."

Folly Beach hasn't had the dunes breached, said Steve Robinson, public works director. Kiawah Island and Edisto Beach made it through without serious problems, town officials said.

At Wild Dunes, an already bad erosion problem is reaching critical mass. The Links course has built a second, permanent green inland on the 18th hole, turning the signature par 5 hole into a par 3 for the foreseeable future, said Jeff Minton, golf director.

At Seascape, the tides have overrun a large sandbag wall and are gutting out the sand behind them. The fence has been pushed over at the beachside pool, one lightpost has fallen and two more are falling. The sand is gone under the oceanfront lip of the walk around the pool.

The sandbags are the touchpoint of a struggle against beach erosion by six oceanfront condominium complexes and the golf course at the gated resort community, the consequence of Hurricane Hugo damage and a few years of rough weather during a time of sand loss on the inlet beach, which periodically gains or loses sand.

The properties now are protected by a wall of sandbags, which are being shredded by the wash. State and federal regulators have said no more sand bags can be placed.

Meanwhile, golf course and property owners are struggling through regulations and legal challenges to renourish that beach, an effort now in its fifth year. They are negotiating with state regulators over an enforcement order that could include fines and mitigation demands because hundreds of thousands of bags have already washed away.

"I will say one thing, if we didn't have those big bags in front of those buildings they wouldn't have any protection at all," Sottile pointed out Tuesday.

Seascape property manager Lona Vest said it was a desperate situation.

"The sandbags, you don't even see them," she said, standing at poolside Tuesday as surf splashed her. "If you stood back here you wouldn't even know I had anything out there at all. Granted they're better than nothing. But what other options are there? We've asked that repeatedly. We know the erosion is cyclical. But it never went back this far. It's never lasted this long."

A consultant estimated this period of beach erosion could last another year to 18 months, Vest said; he projected the complex would last another 18 months. That was before this latest blast. Asked how long she thinks they have now, Vest paused and took a breath.

"I don't know," she said.

Reach Bo Petersen at 745-5852 or bpetersen@postandcourier.com.