Memo From
The Mayor
By Mayor Shirley Sessions
Some say that Tybee’s Sand and Dunes are magical and made of gold...
that they’re protected by leprechauns who are strategically planning for
Coastal Resilience (wait....what?).
If you haven’t yet become familiar with the term Coastal Resilience, you
will probably hear it mentioned more in the following months and years,
specifically along coastal communities and within agencies, government,
businesses and nonprofits as they discuss Disaster Preparedness
planning. The term simply means preparing for the ability of a community
to “bounce back” after hazardous events such as hurricanes, coastal
storms, and flooding occur – rather than simply reacting to the impacts
left behind. Resilience is our ability to prevent a short-term hazard event
from turning into a long-term community-wide disaster.
What is Tybee doing as part of this coastal resilience process? Following
is a snapshot view of past, current and future actions we’re working on,
in collaboration with many groups, in preparing to “bounce-back” rather
than simply react to what happens after a disaster.
First, thanks to the federal government’s US Army Corps of Engineers,
the $15 million nourishment project has been completed, placing more
than 1.3 million cubic yards of sand – now that’s a “sand-box” – from
the north groin to Chatham Avenue. If you haven’t checked it out – go
“down front” and see just how wide it is now from 14th Street to 19th
Street! The seaward sides of the dunes from 19th – 16th Street have
also been repaired after the November/December sudden beach erosion
hit that area. Tybee contributed $2 million of a State grant to the Corps’
nourishment project to add sand in this area, to expand the beach as
historically this section has experienced the most erosion.
Thanks to our friends and advocates in the State legislator, whose
support on our behalf last year helped obtain $5 million in funds to help
build our coastal resilience projects – much of which will be completed
within the next month.
While the first dunes were built from the Pier to 19th Street early
last year, the decision was made to place additional sand on the beach
with which to build dunes both South and Middle Island during the
nourishment process.
To stabilize the dunes from the Pier to 19th Street, over 92,000 drought
tolerant vegetation was planted in January and additional vegetation will
follow when the new dunes are added in April.
Our dune restoration project is on time and on budget thanks to the
efforts of many, specifically our city staff, the city’s Project Manager and
our partnership with DNR. I know I speak for our Council when thanking
them for their work over the past 18 months. Such a huge undertaking
and accomplished with a team spirit and a well-developed work plan,
will continue as we work toward developing our council/staff goals and
objectives while implementing key elements of our Master Plan. More on
goals/objectives next month!
My Irish toast to you: “There are good ships, and wood ships, and
ships that sail the sea, but the best ships are Tybee friendships, and may
they always be.”
(Thanks Alan Robertson, Dune Project Manager, for contributing to this article)
26 TYBEE BEACHCOMBER | MARCH 2020
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Coastal Resilience
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