As shared in my recent blog post, Hurricane Nicole brought a significant storm surge to the St Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon region. Many residents experienced flooding and property damage, especially of docks and seawalls.
Today, 11-16-22, my husband, Ed, went up in the RV plane and took pictures to compare to others we took prior to Hurricane Nicole.
It has been quite a time. Nicole hit Florida on November 10, 2022 and Hurricane Ian on September 28, 2022. The river has taken two recent hits.
When Ed got home and I asked him how the river looked, there was a pause and he replied, “just like old times…” meaning “not good.”
Ed’s photos were taking during a rising tide around 1:15 November, 16, 2022. You will see that there is the flushing/cleaning of incoming ocean water from the St. Lucie Inlet. If the estuary is left alone, in time, a few weeks, it will significantly clear up. If the ACOE discharges from Lake Okeechobee, (the Lake is at 16.22 feet) it will not clear. Tomorrow’s (11-17-22) Rivers Coalition meeting at 11am at the City of Stuart Chamber, 121 SW Flagler Avenue, Stuart, Fl 34994, will address this issue, also the issue of “sending water south.” The guest speaker will be LTC Todd Polk. I encourage all to attend.
The goal? To allow the St Lucie River to return to her true beauty and that can only happen when we stop the discharges, all of them.
2-11-15 ACOE Periodic Scientist Call information: Periodic_Scientists_Call_2022-11-15
-Sewall’s Point between the SLR/IRL -click on to enlarge.
-Ernie Lyons bridge from Sewall’s Point to Hutchinson Island- IRL
–Jupiter Narrows far left, SLR
-Plume in Atlantic Ocean coming out of St Lucie Inlet
great photos Ed and Jacquie
Thank you Uncle Dale!
Jacqui, thank you for this informative article. I’m surprised that you don’t mention / take into account what happened to the SLR just prior to the hurricanes, that this, the SFWMD emptied the canals in Martin and St Lucie County into the SLR. How clean is the water from the canals? Doesn’t it include farm and ranch runoff and other contaminated water from the basin?
DearJack,
You are totally correct. It is an understood you that the ACOE will bring down the canals when a hurricane is approaching and that this canal water is dirty and adds to the runoff. I was focusing on the situation of damaging storm surge and what it brings. Next time I will think of both. I very much appreciate your reading my blog and commenting. J