DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Although Helene is tracking along Florida’s West Coast, Central Florida’s east coast could still see some big impacts as far as wind, storm surges and potential erosion.
West coast storms and even smaller storms have wreaked havoc on the east coast in the past several years.
Volusia County just got the funds to repair some of its beach walkovers and has several beach restoration projects going on while in Flagler County, the Army Corps of Engineers just finished a major sand re-nourishment project to protect the dunes and A1A from erosion.
Emergency management teams said they will have their eyes on the beach.
“We could see three to four-foot breaking waves as a result of this storm even though it’s a west coast storm, so our beach people are moving assets off the beach, we’re looking at if this corresponds with high tide or low tide,” said Clint Mecham, Volusia’s emergency management director.
[RELATED: CONE, MODELS, SATELLITE | COUNTY-BY-COUNTY impacts | Timing of Helene in Central Florida | COUNTY-BY-COUNTY: Sandbag locations | Here’s what the ‘dirty side’ of a storm means | DOWNLOAD: WKMG-TV free hurricane app]
News 6 Meteorologist Michelle Morgan also broke down how such a large storm on the other side of the state can make an impact on the east.
“Because of the direction of the winds, that’s going to allow the water to be pushed up on shore. We’re not talking about significant or devastating storm surge but it will create enough storm surge to erode beaches in coastal areas,” she said. “When we get gusts this strong, we are looking at not only dangerous high rip current risks along the east coast but also the surf is very dangerous as well and we do see beach erosion.”
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