Its good to see the earth movers removing the mud and ancient shell mix so the turtles can lay their eggs without using a pick and backhoe. I have a home on the island and used to metal detect with great success. After three hurricanes the beaches were swept clean down to their ancient bed. Everything was blown inland or swept out to sea. For two days after the storms the only thing that could be seen on the breach was a dark brown hard ancient muck sand base - no beach or sand dunes -all gone. Since approximately six feet of sand depth had been swept away and the beaches were almost below sea level, it took only a couple of days for wave action to fill the beach with new sand from god knows where. If its not a current dropping forget it! The hurricane surge was only about 9 feet and devastated the beaches, dunes, and homes and condo's on the island.
When I get back to my home in Miami on Friday I will attach a picture taken of our beach immediately after each storm and you can see the progressive devastation to the beach. Cat 1 storms cut into the beach and dunes and make for good metal detecting. A Cat 3 and above leave nothing as you can see by the pics I'll attach Friday.
PS. the beaches here were used to practice for the D-Day Normandy invasion which is why I still find old 50 cal shell casings and why the beaches were closed until the coast guard checked for unexploded ordinance after the storms. After a major storm the island is closed first to check for survivors and the dead, then clear the roads, power lines, and then to keep non-residents off the islands so we can salvage and repair our homes and businesses without interference from outsiders and looters (even with police road blocks we had a little bit of the later). We got hit by the eyewalls of Francis and Jeane within a couple of weeks of each other.
(aka Dick from IA)
