Impacts of Three Consecutive Hurricanes in 2024 along Low-lying Heavily Developed Barrier Islands, West-Central Florida, U.S.A.

Wang, P.; Bishop, J.E.; Westfall, Z.J.; Novalvos Hernandez, L.; Royer, E.L., and Jackson, K., 2026. Impacts of three consecutive hurricanes in 2024 along low-lying heavily developed barrier islands, west-central Florida, U.S.A. Journal of Coastal Research, 42(3), 511–535. Charlotte (North Carolina), ISSN 0749-0208. The year 2024 was exceptional for the west-central Florida coast in terms of hurricane impacts. Three hurricanes, Debby, Helene, and Milton, impacted the coast within 65 days. Three heavily developed barrier islands were examined based on six repeated surveys of 121 beach profiles conducted before and after the passage of each hurricane. This provided a rare opportunity to quantify the impacts of consecutive hurricanes along a heavily developed coast. Beach-dune changes caused by each storm demonstrated substantial alongshore variation that was significantly controlled by prestorm conditions. The beach-dune changes caused by a subsequent storm are strongly influenced by the profile characteristics produced by the previous storm. Hurricane Helene generated the highest storm surge over the 78-year measurement period in the greater study area. Widespread flooding of the barrier-island interior was mostly from the bayside overtopping the seawall by up to 1.3 m. During Hurricane Helene, the beach and dunes were not able to sustain the prolonged (>5 h) wave attack. Some of the sand from the eroded dunes was deposited onto the beach. The storm surge also caused widespread washover distributing eroded beach and dune sand onto roads and infrastructures that were <150 m from the ocean. The few surviving dunes were protected by a wider than 50-m beach seaward of the dune field. Hurricane Milton deposited significant amounts of sand in deeper water as compared with Hurricanes Debby and Helene. The alongshore variation of the seaward limit of measurable elevation change was mainly controlled by prestorm bathymetry as opposed to alongshore variation of wave heights.