Ike Closes Stumphole

3 p.m. Update from Gulf County Emergency Management:

Gulf County remains under a High Surf Advisory and a Coastal Flood Advisory. These conditions will continue to lead to hazardous rip currents as well as dangerously high surf along Gulf County’s beaches. These conditions will be life threatening to anyone entering the watering including experienced surfers.

Indian Pass Road (CR 30B) remains closed at this time and the Cape San Blas Road (SR 30E) has been opened to emergency vehicles and local traffic only. If conditions continue to improve, school buses will be operating tomorrow in the Indian Pass and Cape San Blas areas. Coastal residents and visitors are encouraged to continue to monitor coastal conditions throughout the day.

For additional information contact Gulf County Emergency Management at 229-9110.

Thanks to radical environmentalist bureaucrats in Tallahassee, Cape residents are cut off from the mainland this morning as waves crash over the wall at Stumphole which was badly damaged by Gustav. Despite the hard work of our Sheriff’s department who did the best they could moving rocks from the north end over to the low areas towards the middle of the wall, by 4 a.m. this morning they had no choice but to close it to traffic.

The beach renourishment continues to work as advertised and although we’ve lost a lot of beach, the homes I saw in the areas where renourishment has been completed were safe and sound. You can see in this photo taken in my neighborhood, Cape Breezes, how the gentle slope of the new beach prevented the waves from cutting into the base of the primary dune line.

Over on the bay side, I just thought I saw a high tide during Gustav. In the fourteen years I’ve lived here, I’ve never seen anything like this.

This was taken from the porch of one of the cottages behind Scallop Cove; normally this is a vast expanse of green lawn. The water actually came up underneath several of the cottages.

I’ll be in touch with county officials today monitoring the situation and will let you know as soon as I hear they are letting traffic back through. If you have questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to either shoot me an email to [email protected] or call me on my cell, 850-227-5197.

7 Comments on 'Ike Closes Stumphole':

sdodsworth on 09/13/08:

Property continues to sell on the Cape. When you look at a series of historical surveys of the shoreline you can see that the rate of erosion is greatest along the southern portion and decelerates as you move northward, essentially stabilzing south of the state park. The northern end of the peninsula is actually accreting.

Alan on 09/13/08:

I've been coming to Indian Pass/Cape San Blas for years. Are people actually still buying land and homes past the stumphole? That place won't exist someday. Best place on earth to visit, but I wouldn't invest there.

on 09/12/08:

Ha! On-shore, sorry. 15th St. There's no way I'd be out there!

sdodsworth on 09/11/08:

When you say you're about half a mile off shore in MB, what kind of boat are you in????? That water is wild today. I'm too much of a fiar weather sailor for that type of adventure!

on 09/11/08:

I did see one of someone that had taken one out at the cape. They showed it about half an hour ago along with one from Tyndall Beach. I didn't realize the water on the bay side was so high. Good luck if you've got a place out there! I'm half a mile off shore in Mexico Beach. Lots of surfers out here.

on 09/11/08:

Have you sent these photos to the Weather Channel. They're eating this stuff up.

sdodsworth on 09/11/08:

I sent about a half dozen of them earlier today but haven't seen them show up. I thought either the close up of the water splashing over the rocks or the palm tree tops sticking out of the water would show up for sure . . . but I've been wrong about other things, too! Let me know if you see them.

7 Comments on 'Ike Closes Stumphole':

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