Weeks after a stretch of Kismet’s oceanfront beach was carved away by unusually concentrated wave action, local officials say the community may have little choice but to wait.
Though Kismet’s primary dune remains intact, much of the usable beach where residents and visitors alike would lounge, walk, and swim has been drastically reduced, leaving the beach itself claustrophobically narrow and creating drop-offs that raise concerns ahead of the summer season. Because the dune itself is not severely damaged, local officials say the erosion does not currently meet the threshold for major government-funded repairs.
“The only downside to that is it’s not bad enough to get any kind of government money to restore what was just taken away,” said Sam Wood, owner of Sam Woods Inc. and current volunteer Erosion Control Commissioner, at a Kismet Community Association (KCA) meeting on May 30.
The recent erosion appears to have been caused by a disruption to the offshore sandbar, which concentrated the waves on one section of the shoreline.
“This was kind of an anomaly, where the sandbar got a hole in it and concentrated the wave action, and that’s what chopped away at our beach,” Wood said.
Officials reassure that there is no immediate danger to homes or infrastructure, and the loss of recreational beach space remains the immediate consequence. While the primary dune continues to protect the community from major wave action, the narrowed shoreline has left some areas with little room for beachgoers, prompting officials to rethink summer beach operations.
“The good news is our primary dune is intact”, announced Wood. “Which is fantastic, because that’s what really keeps large wave action from entering the community.”
Gary Leone, the current president of the KCA, also said they are working on signage warning visitors about drop-offs and changing beach conditions, since the beach remains public and cannot simply be closed to visitors unless conditions worsen to an unsafe degree.
“It’s going to have the lifeguards, it’s going to be open like it always is,” Wood added.
The unfortunate consensus between the two is that there is no obvious solution to the current erosion. Even if money were available, placing sand on the beach while erosion is still occurring would likely be ineffective.
