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Log photo by KATHY HARRISON ‘NOWHERE TO GO’: Terry Grelling stands on the balcony of her Jetty East condo, where she’s lived full-time since 1992. She fears that without a beach restoration project for west Destin, erosion will threaten her home.



‘I’d have nowhere to go’

Widow frets about eroding beaches


By Patrick Donohue
( 850 ) 654 - 8445 pdonohue @link .freedom .com



Terry Grelling lived through Hurricane Opal in 1995 and Ivan in 2004 but the squall that blew through Destin last month has her worried that further beach erosion could cost her her home.
For the past 14 years, Grelling has lived in the condominium in Jetty East on Holiday Isle, a home she bought with her late husband in 1977.
A storm last month, one that did not even register tropical storm-force winds, was strong enough to erode all of the beach that had accreted behind the condo (some 30 feet of beach), crack the concrete pads in the condo’s parking lot and wash away the tile on the condo’s pool deck.
Grelling said that after seeing the damage done by what was a relatively weak storm, she believes an immediate beach restoration project is necessary for the beaches of Destin, west of Henderson Beach State Park.
“When it’s high tide, the water crashes into the seawall and thankfully we have that seawall,” she said from the balcony of her condo Monday afternoon. “If we didn’t have that seawall, we wouldn’t be standing here right now.”
Grelling said she’s saddened by what she called a lack of responsiveness from city, county and state officials to address what she considers to be an urgent need for beach restoration on Holiday Isle.
“It’s scary and sad. I’m a widow and I don’t know what else to do. What can we do?” she said. “This is my home and I don’t know what I’d do or where I’d go if I lost it. I’d have nowhere to go.”
Earlier this month, Philip Lofé, general manager at Jetty East, wrote a letter to Destin’s City Council and city staff pleading for a beach restoration project on Holiday Isle.
“We are begging for at least a patch or temporary fix to our beach erosion problems,” Lofé wrote. “In the event of another storm of any significance, our fears are that we could experience catastrophic structural damage.”
Grelling said residents in Jetty East have been told that a formal beach restoration project could take a year or two, something she said could prove damaging to those who live in and rent the condominiums, thoughts that Lofé echoed in his letter.
“If we wait for true restoration (12-24 months from now at best) our future along west Holiday Isle is in question,” the letter read.
Mayor Craig Barker said the city fully recognizes the need for a beach restoration project for the remainder of Destin’s beaches not being restored in the Walton County/Destin beach restoration project, which will resume within weeks.
But an immediate fix may not be feasible.
Last year, Barker wrote the state Department of Environmental Protection, stating the urgent need for such a project for Destin’s beaches west of Henderson Beach State Park. Barker said that while the permitting process for beach restoration projects is justifiably long, the erosion on Destin’s beaches continues to worsen.
“Beach restoration is a statutorily governed and cumbersome process that requires a tremendous investment in scientific validation, and I fully appreciate the need to cross every ‘t’ and dot every ‘i,’” the mayor said.
“But, as the permitting process unfolds, the health of Destin’s beaches has deteriorated to the point where we are nearing a crisis situation. Even though our request in this regard has been declined, it still seems so logical to me that the scope of our currently approved beach restoration project could be expanded to include the beaches of Destin’s mid and western reaches.
“So I for one won’t rest until every potential avenue to include those areas have been exhausted,” Barker said.
Jim Trifilio, beach projects manager for the Okaloosa County Tourist Development Council, said all of the beaches in Destin have been designated by the state as “critically eroded” but that getting the appropriate permits is arduous.
“There’s absolutely a need for it and unfortunately this process takes longer than people would like,” Trifilio said.
He said that within a month, the TDC would begin contracting to do a sand search for a restoration project for western Destin and would also begin the design and permitting process for that project.
However, the sand search alone would take six to nine months and during that time, Trifilio said, the county would apply for a joint coastal permit to try and expedite what is a year-long process just to obtain that permit.