qzseattle

I am planning to visit Florida beaches next spring. However, after the hurricanes, I am not sure where to go. I had three areas in mind. The Tampa bay area (Naples etc), Eastern Coast (the beaches north of Miami beach such as Ft. Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Stuart etc) and gulf coast in Panhandle area (Destin in particular).

Unfortunately, all of these areas have been affected by recent hurricanes. What is the state of the beaches in these areas? I hoping that these areas would have recovered in spring.

Florida is my favorite vacation destination and I feel terrible for the loss of life, property and natural beauty due to all these storms.

tcapp

By next spring most should be just fine barring another hurricane.
The gulf coast may be harder hit and may not fully be recovered by time you visit, but anything north of Miami should be pretty well recovered by the time of your visit.

sognatrice2

I just talked to my aunt who lives in Fort Walton Beach and has her business in Destin, she says come on by to visit in the spring! We are grateful she and her family are alive, the losses were property losses. Lots of folks there are hurting at the moment.
Hope you enjoy your spring vacation, and if you love Destin and the Gulf Coast, or have enjoyed it in the past, 2 wonderful organizations in need of contributions right now are
The American Red Cross and
The Convoy of Hope (the news gave a website of www.convoyofhelp)

You can earmark the contribution for hurricane victims in Florida.

I know the beaches will come back, always do.
Good luck.

hibiscushouse

I'll take a look today and let you know how it looks to the west of Tampa (Indian Shores and Indian Rocks area). We were out there the day Ivan passed us by and it was a very high tide and very rough surf. It churned things up quite a bit. The next day, I peeked and it was still a bit rough. I haven't look since, but will today now that the breeze is gone and things are back to normal.
There was quite a bit of seaweed on the beach from when Frances came by us the weekend before. The city will clean that up eventually, but hadn't as of last weekend anticipating Ivan's effects.

Tandoori_Girl

Sunset Beach had much of its beach renourishment washed away from Caddy's south. So there is a dropoff of about a foot from the washed away new sand to the old -- makes one wonder why they do it in the first place, the old sand is just fine. There are no trees or buildings down, there were no major problems in this area from Frances. Charley never hit here.

The biggest problems in Florida are in the Panhandle in Pensacola. Ft. Walton, Destin, and Panama City have power outs now, but the problems with storm surge and wind were not as severe as in Pensacola where entire islands and their homes were desimated. Even worse are problems to infrastructure -- roads, plumbing, power lines. It is hard to even reach these communities at this time due to the damage Ivan reeped. Interstate-10 is now impassable and cars are being routed to Hwy. 90. West of Florida, Alabama has even more damage and is but a shadow of its former self. Horrible devestation.

The beaches will recover their sand. The houses will take a lot of time to rebuild, as will the roads.

We love Florida too. Love it to death.

johnthedorf

I was at the beach yesterday to check it out. Carlin Park in Jupiter was fine although eroded by fifty percent (which is a good thing). I say that because the beach was about 350 yards from the Parking lot. No seaweed which surprised me.
I moved here from Woodinville!

dlccols

We rescheduled our first trip to the Destin area (Beach Manor condo at Tops'l Resort) from 9/4-9/11/2004 to 9/26-10/3/2004 due to Frances and now think we should cancel this trip to the panhandle for this year, right?? Delta is letting travellers reschedule any flight to Florida beach areas through 10/7. I had been looking so forward to visiting the beautiful beaches in the panhandle that we have heard so much about. What about Naples, Vanderbilt beach in late November of this year? Does anyone know of the impact there?

Mers

I too was thinking of rescheduling my trip to Naples on 10/8, but Continental so far is only letting you reschedule for flights upto 9/30.

Does anyone know how the beaches are in the Naples area? I am only going to be coming for 4 days - so if check the weather right before I leave and see that the weather isn't going to be that great when I come, I will probably postpone until maybe November.

Any info would be greatly appreciated!

hibiscushouse

My MIL frequents Vanderbuilt beach in Naples alot. I talked to her on Monday, and she said it was fine.
In my neck of the woods...central Gulf coast, Indian Rocks Beach, sandwiched inbetween St. Pete beach and Clearwater Beach, this is what the beach looks like as of this past Saturday. (a picture is worth a thousand words)
Looking north:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0-2073_IMG.jpg

Looking south:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0-2074_IMG.jpg

Looking good!

Patrick

Mers, fear not. Maybe if you got out a tape measure and compared old records you'd find that here and there the beaches maybe lost a little sand, but I walk it almost every day (near downtown Naples) and I can't tell a thing. Trust me, you'd never know a thing happened. Naples was NOT affected.
We just had a downpour for about an hour, but it is clearing up again. That is typical weather for this time of year, so it really shouldn't be any different than what you would have been expecting in September!

Mers

Patrick:
Thanks for the reassurance. Continental is now offering to reschedule flights upto the 17 of October without penalty - maybe in anticipation of Jeanne. I do have until September 30 to make this change.
Since we are bringing our daughter for her birthday and will only be there for 4 days, of course we want to try to come when it will be sunny. I guess by September 30, we can look ahead and have a better idea of what they weather might be like.
If I do reschedule, I would change it to the first week of November. Is hurricane season usually over by then?

Beachlover2

Hurricane season ends November 30 - Usually they are over by the end of October - but the way this year has been - who knows.