I have to admit being several hundred miles from New Orleans we weren’t expecting all that much action from Gustav, but the wind has been blowing hard and steady since late Friday afternoon and waves continue to pound away at our beaches even at mid-day on Labor Day.
The combination of high tide, and bit of storm surge, and wind just blasting out of south-east washed away enough rocks at Stumphole that the Sheriff closed it this morning around 10 a.m. At that point they were letting people leave, but only property owners were being allowed back in. I’m hearing now that it is closed period while they work on repairs. I’ll let you know when I hear it has reopened. (I apologize for the poor quality of these photos but my camera is at the office which of course I can’t get to this afternoon, so I had to shoot these using my cell phone).
The good news is that beach renourishment did its job and saved homes. Although the surf has eaten away at the beach the water is no where near homes where renourishment has been completed. I stopped by Cape Palms Park to see how the folks at Cape Shoals fared and was thrilled to see the beach in such good shape.
Before renourishment, there would have been waves washing up under the pilings of these homes from a storm like this so this is just wonderful to see. Here’s a shot looking southward from the same vantage point.
Unfortunately, the renourishment program hasn’t yet reached the folks on the southern end of the Cape down approaching Stumphole and they have once again taken a serious beating. I stopped by the Sunrise Sunset townhouses to take these shots.
Over on the bay side the surf has been extremely rough and high all weekend long, at times with rolling waves breaking on shore. One of the docks at Ovation was half way under water at one point this morning.
The tide has barely receded at all and the next high tide is due around 4. We are still getting bands of strong wind but oddly have had virtually no rain from this system. My rain guage down at the end of our dock was bone dry this morning.
We’re glad to have been spared from heavier damage, and our thoughts and prayers are with our neighbors to the west of us and hope that Gustav spares them from serious damage.