INDIAN ROCKS BEACH, Fla. — Pinellas Public Works Director Kelli Levy said the beaches lost 1 million cubic yards of sand after Hurricanes Helene and Milton, as leaders on Friday stressed the need for beach renourishment from the Army Corps of Engineers.

What You Need To Know

  • County officials say Pinellas beaches lost 1 million cubic yards of sand after Hurricanes Helene and Milton

  • Pinellas Commission Chair Kathleen Peters said she had a phone call with the White House Friday to discuss a possible workaround with the Army Corps of Engineers

  • Public works said the Corps estimated monetary damages to beaches after Miltion would easily reach $130 million  

  • Public works has a beach renourishment project ready to go in the spring for Sand Key, Upham, Sunset Beach and Sunshine Beach

“It is not OK for the Army Corps to essentially put all the risk on local communities,” said Florida’s Chief Resiliency Officer Dr. Wes Brooks. “When it's their job to prevent flood risk from happening in the first place.”

The Corps and Pinellas County have been in a nearly decade long standoff over beach renourishment due to required perpetual easements from homeowners. About half of those homeowners have refused to sign the easements and Levy urged them to reconsider at this difficult time.

“We also need all of our residents that we need easements from to come to the table and start helping us, because this is truly a community lift,” she said. “We need everybody involved. We need hundreds of easements for us for to go forward.”

Pinellas Commission Chair Kathleen Peters said she had a phone call with the White House on Friday about a possible workaround with the Corps. Peters said she was hopeful after getting a good response from the Biden administration after the back-to-back hurricanes.

“As frustrated as I am over the past history with FEMA, I'm incredibly hopeful based on the response that this administration has given us,” she said. “Maybe I'm reading it wrong, maybe I'm too hopeful.”

After the call, Peters said she remained optimistic and said she spoke with a lieutenant colonel from the Army Corps Of Engineers.   

“He wasn’t prepared with emergency measures at this time,” she said. “They made a commitment to follow up in a couple of weeks with recommended emergency solutions.”

Levy said a possible workaround includes releasing funds for damages last year from Hurricane Idalia to the Corps, which was estimated at $65 million. The partnership requires the federal government to pay for 65% of the beach renourishment cost. Levy said the Corps estimated the damages after Helene and Milton to be easily double that amount at $130 million.

“Release that funding, make it available to the Army Corps of Engineers and allow them to come forward and construct this project,” she said. “We can also utilize other access rights. So if we need temporary construction easements or other types of construction easements, that is that is a path forward.”

At the Tourist Development Council meeting last month, Levy showed before and after photos taken at the same spot along the beaches, which showed the sand and dune system nearly washed away.

“We did sustain a lot of loss. I mean, we've had Idalia, Debbie, Helene, Milton, one after the other after the other,” she said. “When we don't get the sand back on the beach, the impacts are compounded.” 

Levy said public works recently wrapped up their beach renourishment project in Pass-a-Grille and has another project ready to go in the spring that will cost more than $100 million to renourish a number of beaches.

“That would be all of Sand Key. It would be Treasure Island, including Sunshine Beach and Sunset Beach,” she said. “And it would be Upham.”

Levy said the project could be transferred to the Corps, which saw a lot of the damage after Milton.

“When they were here, they told us that our beaches were considered in the red,” she said. “Meaning there's really just not much more damage that we can sustain.”