PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Clean-up from Hurricane Idalia’s pass along Tampa Bay included removing truckloads of sand from roads in Pinellas County Beach communities.

Crews were out along Gulf Boulevard in Madeira Beach late Thursday afternoon. Just a few miles away in Indian Shores, more erosion took place.

Tom Griesdorn has lived in Indian Shores for 10 years.

What You Need To Know

  • Clean-up from Hurricane Idalia’s pass along Tampa Bay included removing truckloads of sand from roads in Pinellas County beach communities

  • Crews were out along Gulf Blvd. in Madeira Beach late Thursday afternoon

  • Idalia washed several feet of sand from the beach

“It’s wonderful until a hurricane arrives,” he said.

Griesdorn also owns vacation rentals there.

“We’ve been very, very lucky. We’ve dodged three ‘I’ hurricanes,” he said.

But that doesn’t mean they don’t leave their mark.

“This is what everyone is concerned about,” Griesdorn said, pointing to a tree at the edge of a beach and a home’s yard that was partially tipped over, its roots exposed.

Griesdorn said Idalia washed several feet of sand from the beach.

“This is the line. It went up this high and gradually went down,” he said, pointing to a steep drop-off in the sand level of a dune.

It’s something being seen all along the Pinellas coast.

The county’s senior public relations coordinator Tony Fabrizio said county crews did damage assessments Thursday and found severe erosion in some spots. County officials have previously said Pinellas’s beaches are in desperate need of renourishment. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers policy requires all homeowners who live along beaches where such projects are taking place to sign permanent easements, which include some private backyards.

Only about half of homeowners in the Pinellas project area have signed.

“How are we going to continue to attract tourists who are going to spend money in our restaurants and our gas at stations?” Griesdorn said. “They’re not going to want to come here if there’s no beach.”

When it comes to the tree, Indian Shores Building Official and Flood Plane Manager Brian Rusu said it’s over the coastal construction line.

That means the town has to look into whether a permit from the county or the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is needed to remove it, which Rusu said is the plan. As for renourishment, the wait continues.

“If it’s 2040 and there are four or five more hurricanes that don’t hit us directly, but just take our sand, what’s it going to do, Griesdorn said.