Coastal Change Hazards: Hurricanes and Extreme Storms

Hurricane Jeanne

Hurricane Jeanne. Image courtesy of Intellicast. [larger version]

Category-3 Hurricane Jeanne came ashore on the central east coast of Florida on September 25, 2004. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), NASA, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) are cooperating in a research project investigating coastal change that occurred during Hurricane Jeanne.

Aerial video, oblique photography, and airborne laser mapping data have been acquired from the impacted areas and will be compared to earlier data. The comparisons will detect the nature, magnitude, and spatial variability of coastal changes such as beach erosion and overwash deposition. These data will be used to develop and test predictive models of coastal impacts from severe storms. The data will be made available to local, state and federal agencies for purposes of disaster recovery and erosion mitigation.

Hurricane Jeanne before and after photo pairs are available online. See examples of extreme coastal change in photos taken September 29th after Jeanne's landfall.