JUPITER INLET COUNTY, Fla. — Mother Nature is wreaking havoc along the shoreline all the way from Palm Beach County to the Treasure Coast.
Along the beach in Jupiter Inlet Colony, Joan Weinbaum calls this an emergency.
"Everybody who has coastal shoreline property on the ocean is vulnerable," Weinbaum said as she looked at what was someone's backyard.
Six houses in the small town of around 500 have been impacted by recent erosion.
One of those was a new construction supposed to get its certificate of occupancy any day now.
Dick Taber has lived here almost since the town’s beginning and has rarely seen it this bad.
"It hasn’t been that way for a long time. I guess Mother Nature goes off and does things," Taber said.
There have been no evacuations.
Mayor Ed Hocevar said he’s been meeting with contractors Monday, and has reached out to the Department of Environmental Protection to see if they can bring in sand immediately.
"To shore up the beach right in front of the homes that have been compromised by the erosion," Hocevar said.
While in Palm Beach County, the concern is for residents' homes, and on the Treasure Coast, the concern is on the future homes for sea turtles.
So over the next few weeks, heavy equipment will be brought in along miles of St. Lucie County coastline to smooth out the beach where there are several escarpments, or cliffs.
County spokesman Erick Gill stresses this is not a beach renourishment program, but a program designed to help sea turtles after a record nesting season in 2023.
"One of the reasons we put sand on our beaches. It not only protects habitat and property values, but protects the habitat for the wildlife that use our beaches," Gill said.
