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(Trends Wide) — Trip Valigorsky’s waterfront home in a tight-knit Volusia County, Florida, community had been in his family for nearly 15 years, until it was leveled this week when dangerous storm surge and high winds caused by Hurricane Nicole swept through Florida.
“This house was my grandmother’s favorite place,” Valigorsky told Trends Wide. “Some of the best memories I have of her were here.”
Valigorksy is just one of many residents of the Wilbur-By-The-Sea waterfront neighborhood whose homes were damaged or destroyed by the storm.
In Volusia County, at least 49 beachfront properties, including hotels and condominiums, were listed as “unsafe” after Nicole hit the east coast of Florida south of Vero Beach as a Category 1 hurricane on early Thursday, before weakening to a tropical storm and eventually becoming a post-tropical cyclone by Friday afternoon.
A county video shows homes crumbling, reduced to rubble, as waves from Nicole erode the shoreline. Another video shows the county beach safety office sinking in the rising tide.
Sea levels in that area of Florida have risen by more than a foot (about 30 centimeters) in the past 100 years, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and most of that rise has occurred in the past three decades. .
Scientists and researchers have long warned that rising sea levels cause more erosion and flooding during high tides, especially during extreme coastal storms.
This put even more pressure on levees that are meant to protect coastal communities from high waves and high water levels, many of which were destroyed this week by storm surge. A boardwalk that was put up Tuesday, and that Valigorsky and his neighbors hoped would protect his property, collapsed into the ocean Wednesday, he said.
“It was stressful wondering if it would fall, and here we are,” Valigorsky said.
On Wednesday morning, Valigorsky decided to take his essential belongings and his dog to evacuate the area, as he watched the storm turn even more violent. When he returned, only the garage and front hall remained of his house.
As her community begins to rebuild their neighborhood in the aftermath of Nicole, Valigorsky said she plans to rebuild her home along with her neighbors who also lost theirs.
“People can’t be prepared for that,” says a resident
Another resident, Phil Martin, lost his entire home during the hurricane this week. “It was the most devastating thing,” Martin said. “We didn’t think it would be that serious.”
Martin said he has lived in the area for two years and the house was his permanent residence, where he spent time with his children and grandchildren, playing soccer in the backyard or walking on the beach.
“There are no politics on the beach, we all get along there,” Martin said, adding that his community and those around Wilbur-By-The-Sea are keeping their spirits up.
“Everything happened very fast this time,” he said. “But we are going to rebuild.”
Just six weeks ago, storm surge from Hurricane Ian had eroded parts of Florida’s east coast, battering the area where a boardwalk was built behind Martin’s and his neighbors’ homes. Now, he said, that boardwalk no longer exists.
Back-to-back storms make the already aging seawalls more vulnerable, Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at the University of Miami School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, previously told Trends Wide.
“You don’t need a major storm, you just need high tides or storm surges to wash away or put additional pressure on the walls,” he said. “These two storms six weeks apart gave locals no time to repair or replenish, so each storm left its mark.”
Arlisa Payne, who has been a resident of the waterfront community for most of her life, told Trends Wide affiliate Spectrum News 13 that she had “never seen anything like it” after assessing the damage caused by Hurricane Nicole. .
Although her home survived the storm, Payne said she’s concerned the boardwalk is at risk of collapsing.
The mother-of-four said many of her neighbors’ homes were undamaged by Hurricane Ian, but were instead hit hard by Nicole, making it difficult for the community to be more prepared.
“I think this caught a lot of people off guard,” he said. “How do you prepare for this? People can’t prepare for that.”
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