Florida Neighborhood Struggles To Recover From Hurricane Nicole

 Jan Wesner Childs

Published: December 6, 2022

Beth Ehle watched as part of a neighbor’s house collapsed into the Atlantic Ocean nearly a month ago during relentless surf from Hurricane Nicole in Wilbur-By-The-Sea, Florida.

Now Ehle and other residents are wondering when – or if – their lives will ever be the same.

"How many people lost their houses? It just breaks my heart," she said.

Sections of at least eight houses within a block or so of Ehle’s fell into the ocean as waves churned up by Nicole pounded the shoreline, already heavily eroded after Hurricane Ian roared across the Florida Peninsula six weeks prior.

Others up and down the beach are also damaged.

This home in Wilbur-By-The-Sea, Florida, seen on Dec. 1, 2022, used to extend another 30 feet toward the ocean. Erosion from Hurricane Nicole washed part of it away.

Ehle is one of several homeowners, local officials, contractors, engineers and scientists interviewed by weather.com in the weeks since Nicole.

None know for sure what the long-term solutions are in Wilbur-By-The-Sea, a tight-knit community where condominiums and high-density development aren't allowed and the homes are a mix of modest ranches and modern extravagance.

"There’s no easy answer because every property is different, every repair is different," said Volusia County spokesperson Kevin Captain.

(​MORE: Mystery Object Appears On Florida Beach After Hurricane Nicole)

Wilbur-By-The-Sea sits on a narrow stretch of barrier island in unincorporated Volusia County, a few miles south of Daytona Beach. Nicole made landfall another 125 miles to the south but pushed wind and waves northward up Florida’s Space Coast through Brevard County and into Volusia.

As the storm churned up the surf in Wilbur-By-The-Sea, first responders knocked on doors and told people to get out immediately. A mandatory evacuation order was issued ahead of the storm, but many residents chose to stay behind.

Some of the homes, like Ehle’s, look structurally sound from the outside but their foundations may have been compromised by the shifting land around them.

"They’re built on slabs right on the sand," said Jack Cash, a structural engineer who was inspecting one of the homes on a recent sunny morning. "So if the sand moves, they move."

M​any now have brightly colored stickers on the front doors, placed by county officials, that read: "Unsafe. Do not occupy. Enter at your own risk."

Dozens of homes, condominiums and other buildings were declared unsafe in Volusia County, Florida, after Hurricane Nicole brought extreme erosion to the area. The storm made landfall farther south in Florida on Nov. 10, 2022. Stickers like this still dotted homes in Wilbur-By-The-Sea on Dec. 1, 2022.

M​ore than a dozen condominiums and other structures have also been deemed off-limits in nearby Daytona Beach Shores. Homes and other buildings were also damaged or declared unsafe in the neighboring communities of Ponce Inlet, New Smyrna Beach and Bethune Beach, as well as the Brevard County communities of Satellite Beach and Melbourne Beach.

Cash said structural issues are a common problem when buildings are constructed right up to the beach, like the homes in Wilbur-By-The-Sea.

And it’s an issue that scientists say will only get worse as sea levels rise and storms have the potential to become more intense.

"Over the last 100 years or more, the effects of climate change have slowly been integrated into the coastal processes," coastal geologist and Florida International University associate professor Randall Parkinson said. "The geometry of our shorelines is now subject to physical factors that it wasn’t previously."

(​MORE: Why Erosion From Hurricane Nicole Was So Bad)

E​hle estimates her home, built in 1964, has lost 8 to 12 feet of sand in front of it since she and her husband, Fred, moved in eight years ago. Just since then, the property has been battered by numerous high tide events and storms, including hurricanes Matthew in 2016 and Irma in 2017.

If her home was a total loss, Ehle concedes she would probably not rebuild.

"Times are changing," she said. "The climate’s changing. It’s never going to be the same again."

A sightseer shoots images of damaged homes in Wilbur-By-The-Sea, Florida, on Dec. 1, 2022.

Even without rising sea levels and changing weather patterns, barrier islands are by definition dynamic, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which calls them "a constantly changing deposit of sand" that form parallel to coastlines.

"As wind and waves shift according to weather patterns and local geographic features, these islands constantly move, erode and grow," NOAA’s website says. "They can even disappear entirely."

That’s why Parkinson doesn’t think anyone should be surprised by the extreme erosion in Wilbur-By-The-Sea.

"In the long run, this is just part of how barrier islands operate," he said.

Y​et people are still drawn to live, build, vacation and work on them.

M​arc Bauerle has lived in his Wilbur-By-The-Sea home, built in 1975, for six years. Like Ehle, he stayed at the property during Nicole's beating on the beach.

"​You sort of get sick to your stomach and you can't cope with watching it, so we had to move to another room," Bauerle said.

H​is house and one he owns next door now sit on cliffs of sand about 40 feet high.

"​If we don't shore it up now, we are in jeopardy of losing the back of our property, and the house," Bauerle said.

Marc Bauerle watches workers construct a temporary seawall at his home in Wilbur-By-The-Sea, Florida, on Dec. 1, 2022.

H​e stood above the scene on a Saturday afternoon, watching the construction of a temporary seawall he hopes will save it. Eventually, he plans to replace the 8-foot-tall, 100-foot-long seawall taken out by Nicole.

But the permitting process for coastal construction can be long and complicated, and requires approval by the state. Ehle, Bauerle and other residents say the rules need to change to make it easier to build protections for their homes.

Then there is the issue of cost – residents are responsible for replacing the lost sand on their properties, and the price of seawalls and other structures can run hundreds of dollars per foot.

"Insurance doesn’t cover the seawall, insurance doesn’t cover the sand," said Mary Church, who owns the home next door to Ehle but doesn’t live there full-time.

(​MORE: Before And After Images Of Nicole's Destruction)

Church noted that one neighbor's seawall washed away during Ian, and then couldn't be repaired in time for Nicole.

"Some of these people are losing their homes, their lives, their memories," she said.

Church was home in New Hampshire for Nicole, watching the damage mount on The Weather Channel.

"We did not have any idea how much it was going to be," she said. "It was a wait-and-see game."

Workers install foundation supports at a home owned by Mary Church in Wilbur-By-The-Sea, Florida, on Nov. 19, 2022. Beth Ehle's home is in the background.

Like some other owners, Church brought in a contractor within a week to shore up her partially exposed foundation. A giant crane held up one corner of the one-story home while workers installed supports underneath.

"You have to make the decision. Is it worth the risk? Do you cut your losses and sell the property? The beach might not come back for 20 years," she said.

Or ever.

P​arkinson, the coastal geologist, doesn't mince words on the point of sea level rise and people living on the beach.

His take: "This does not end in a good way."

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.