CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — While the Coastal Bend did not experience nearly as much damage as we did with Hurricane Hanna (2020), county officials are expected to survey our beaches this week for signs of beach erosion following Tropical Storm Harold.
Big waves and curiosity brought visitors out to Padre Island, who also caught a glimpse of what the storm has left behind.
"A little bit of rain, a little bit of wind, saw a porta potty that was tipped over," said beach visitor Brad Culp.
Jace Tunnell at the Harte Research Institute said one of the things he worries about with storms like this is the initial storm surge.
"They basically chop the dunes off, and then anything that is living on the beach is getting washed out and washed away," he said.
Tunnell said that coastal flooding can wash away sea turtle eggs that haven't hatched yet. Birds he said are often victims of the strong winds.
"Find them going into some of the rehabs because they break wings, get out of control and aren't able to fly normally," he said.
Residents out near Bob Hall Pier are finding a lot of debris scattered along the beach, as we are still dealing with the high tides. In some spots, water is pushing its way all the way to the dune line. Now, officials said it could be at least a couple of days for conditions to clear up to begin the clean up process as well as survey several miles of beach. The biggest concern is erosion.
Nueces County Coastal Parks Director Scott Cross said residents can see the water eating away at the beach. He said he was not looking forward to seeing another big storm hit along what he said is an already shrinking beach.
"I can promise you, you thought you had some erosion after Hannah and the winter storms that came in after that. This is going to exacerbate the erosion," he said.
Cross said the problem is that there isn't enough sand to help nourish the beach. His team will be evaluating the beach for any large debris.
"What the beach is going to look like, I can't tell you until this goes down, and it maybe I wouldn't be surprised if it's Thursday," he said.
Cross hopes Nueces County can one day consider a beach nourishment project but its something he said could take years and millions in funding to complete.
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