Tybee Island’s beach erosion is accelerating

TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. — The beach is washing away on Georgia’s coastline. The erosion is so bad on Tybee Island, it’s closed some beaches.

Severe Weather Team 2 Chief Meteorologist Brad Nitz explains the problem and what’s being done to protect what is left.

People who live near Tybee Island and visit frequently say the beach is disappearing before their eyes.

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“We’re going to get to go to a different beach next year because there’s no beach here. So what are you going to do?” beachgoer Andy Deutsch said.

The cause: Decades of beach erosion is now accelerating fast, so fast that sections of the beach are closing.

“It’s gotten pretty bad. You can see where even, you know, in the past few days, the ocean is washed up under here and it’s caving away. at this portion of the beach,” Tybee Mayor Brian West said.

Now, with hurricane season underway, leaders on Georgia’s coastline are warning that without sand dunes to act as a buffer, even a small storm could bring big problems.

“Even a moderate storm will be on the island very quickly, and we’ll have significant water damage on the island very quickly. So we are concerned about how storms could impact us this year and next year,” West said.

Dr. Clark Alexander from The Skidway Institute of Oceanography has been tracking the changes for years.

“We’ve been flying the beach with our drones and developing maps of what the surface of the beach looks like,” he said. “Where Highway 80 ends and Butler begins, they typically have water that is coming in to the ground floor in the worst cases.”

“We’re looking at, how can we maybe raise roadways or do other things to create protection around the backside of the island. But for significant hurricanes, there’s, you know, there’s not much else we can do other than what we have right now,” West said.

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