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Tropical Storm Noel's worst winds avoided South Florida, but the waves it created chewed up beaches from the Georgia border to Miami-Dade County, frustrating environmental managers and tourism officials who are already searching for creative ways to replenish precious sand.
The worst punishment took place on beaches from Brevard County north -- some beachfront structures in St. Johns County were in danger of being washed away -- but Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, which have spent millions of dollars importing and dredging sand the past decade, didn't escape unscathed.
No one is certain yet what the costs of Noel's beach damage will be, but environmentalists, waterfront landowners and tourism chiefs are all concerned.
''They're eroding. They're taking a beating,'' said Steve Higgins, Broward County's beach erosion administrator. ``The waves are pretty big, and the duration is pretty important. If it goes on for days it eats up the beaches.''
Higgins said the upper third of Broward's beaches were the worst hit. Other areas of concern were south of Port Everglades, like John Lloyd Park and Dania Beach.
He said most of Broward is in decent shape thanks to $44.5 million the county has spent the past three years shoring up 6.8 miles of its beaches. He called the beaches ''chronically erosive'' -- a problem that stems from building on the beachfront, he said.
''We've developed almost all our beachfronts and got rid of our dunes,'' he said. ``There's no way for our beach system to act normally.''
Miami-Dade fared better. The hardest hit of its 13 miles of beaches were behind some condos on Miami Beach at 29th Street and in the Fontainebleau area near 44th Street.
Carlos Espinosa, Miami-Dade's Department of Environmental Resource Management director, said the county is using part of a $17 million fund to truck in compatible sand from Central Florida deposits to replenish the hardest hit areas.
Still, he said of Noel, ``It could have been a lot worse.''
With offshore dredging resources running low, Espinosa had been exploring buying sand that would be shipped in from the Bahamas. But that plan was put on hold when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it wouldn't back the plan until all domestic resources had run out.
Thursday, South Florida's problems eroded party lines as U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, sent a letter to the Army Corps asking for a new round of meetings and citing the effects of Noel on the state's coastline.
In Palm Beach, managers were watching a few beachfront structures in Jupiter and Singer Island that could become unsteady because of erosion, Leanne Welch of the county's Department of Environmental Resources Management told the Associated Press.
The county suffered ''significant'' beach erosion, and teams were out assessing the damage Thursday.
Daniel Bates, Palm Beach County's division director for Environmental Enhancement and Restoration, said only a single seawall along the county's 49 miles of beaches collapsed behind a condo at the south end of the county. It has since been stabilized, he said.
''The building itself became undermined, and we had to abandon some units,'' Bates said.
Noel's waves slapped hardest farther north.
Sarah Williams of the State Department of Environmental Protection said staffers are evaluating Noel's damage now. Preliminary reports, she said, show erosion up and down the coast from ``wave energy.''
Williams said St. Johns County managers have already requested emergency permits to stabilize structures and build temporary seawalls on beaches behind private residences that were already damaged from a spring storm.
''This just caused more significant impacts,'' she said.
Up to a half-dozen homes in St. Johns were in danger of being washed away, The AP reported. On Wednesday, Fernandina Beach near the Georgia border declared a local emergency, and on Thursday waves continued lapping at the foundations of several homes and at least one motel in Brevard County.
Environmental managers and tourism officials say erosion problems occur where communities have built along the coastline. Broward's Higgins said if there's no man-made structures in the way, he doesn't even call it erosion.
Still, eroding beaches are not a new phenomenon in Florida, which has experienced an unusual number of powerful storms since 2004 and has spent more than $400 million the past two years to shore up coastlines.
Tourism leaders such as Broward's Nicki Grossman and Miami-Dade's William Talbert are quick to point out the importance of keeping South Florida's beaches in shape.
''It's one of the key reasons people visit South Florida,'' Grossman said.
Talbert said polls of visitors consistently show Miami-Dade's beaches are among the top three reasons the county has so many tourists.
''If our beaches aren't up to snuff and in good condition, there is certainly a lot of competition out there,'' he said.
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